A god in every stone

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Summer, 1914. Young Englishwoman Vivian Rose Spencer is in an ancient land, about to discover the Temple of Zeus, the call of adventure, and love. Thousands of miles away a twenty-year-old Pathan, Qayyum Gul, is learning about brotherhood and loyalty in the British Indian army. Summer, 1915. Viv has been separated from the man she loves; Qayyum has lost an eye at Ypres. They meet on a train to Peshawar, unaware that a connection is about to be forged between their lives - one that will reveal itself fifteen years later when anti-colonial resistance, an ancient artefact and a mysterious woman will bring them together again.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Lush isn't quite the right word for this fine historical by Shamsie, one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. Though she writes with burnished detail, Shamsie isn't going after the grandiose. In summer 1914, a young Englishwoman joins an archaeological dig in Turkey and falls for archaeologist Tahsin Bey, but everything is disrupted by the start of World War I. VERDICT A portrait of people trapped by larger forces; wholly satisfying for readers of high-end historicals. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Themes of imperialism, gender restrictions, and loyalty to country and self reverberate through Shamsie's atmospheric novel, set amid international conflicts of the early twentieth century but with strong echoes of the distant past. At its center are two people setting aside their old lives and beginning anew. Vivian Rose Spencer a young Londoner equally entranced by archaeology and her older mentor, Tahsin Bey returns to England from a Turkish dig after war breaks out in 1914. Hoping to find Tahsin again, she follows a clue in his last letter and travels to British-ruled Peshawar. In a separate tale, Qayyum Gul, a Pashtun soldier injured fighting for Britain, heads home. Their paths intersect briefly but reunite in 1930, when violence erupts on Peshawar's streets and they search desperately for a gifted young man important to them both. Interwoven throughout is a story of empire and betrayal from ancient Persia. Emphasizing ideas and setting over plot, the narrative has an epic sensibility and many moments of expressive brilliance, especially when describing the underlying presence of history.--Johnson, Sarah Copyright 2010 Booklist