A God in Every Stone

BY THE WINNER OF THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION

‘A magnificent novel: beautiful, terrible, true … It reads already like a classic’ – Ali Smith

Shortlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction

Grief never leaves, it merely sinks into you.

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.

A jewel-like story of the destruction of war and the serendipitous nature of fate, A God in Every Stone traverses the globe into the heart of empires fallen and conquered, demonstrating our place in the chaos of history.