Burrowing through the goldsmiths' quarters and hidden archives of London, Tokyo, and Istanbul, Katharine Sterne is on the trail of a ruby, diamond, and pearl brooch once worn by Queen Elizabeth I. Interwoven with the tale of her hunt is that of a pair of Iraqi Jewish brothers who traveled to London two hundred years earlier with fortunes made from an unearthed jar of priceless stones. Spanning two continents and six centuries, The Love of Stones follows three very different people, each consumed by the same desire-possession of the legendary jewel-which binds their stories together in an irresistible quest.
Tobias Hill has published award-winning collections of poetry; a story collection, Skin, which won the 1998 PEN/Macmillan Award for fiction and was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize; and five novels, includingUnderground and The Love of Stones. He lives in England.