The Blessing Stone

From the #1 internationally bestselling author comes a sweeping epic that chronicles the history of the world through the destiny of a mysterious blue stone.Millions of years ago, a meteorite fell to earth and shattered, revealing a beautiful blue stone. One hundred thousand years ago, a girl named Tall One found the crystal on the African plain, and it formed her destiny—as well as the destiny of generations to come. From ancient Israel to Imperial Rome, medieval England to fifteenth-century Germany, the eighteenth-century Caribbean, and the nineteenth-century American West, the destiny of the stone and the history of the world unfold. Each story is full of the betrayals and obsessions of the human heart, and the quests of the human spirit. In The Blessing Stone, Barbara Wood has both told the intimate details of her characters’ lives and created a sense of the epic sweep of human history.From Publishers WeeklyWood (Perfect Harmony) pulls off an unlikely feat with this sweeping epic about the history of humanity, from the first Homo sapiens to 20th-century Californians. At the novel's center is a blue crystal, a fragment from a meteorite that fell to earth some three million years ago. The crystal is first discovered by a girl on the African plain 100,000 years ago; when the "water stone" seems to save her mother from illness, the girl's stature in her community changes and so does the fate of her descendants. As the crystal is passed down through the generations, Wood crafts vivid sketches of ordinary women who triumph over a prescribed destiny. A Roman noblewoman disobeys her husband and finds her own salvation; an 11th-century English prioress struggles against an abbot to save her monastery; a girl from a 16th-century German hamlet heads to the Near East to find her father and becomes part of the sultan's harem; a plantation wife in 18th-century Martinique saves her estate from marauding pirates. At last sighting, the blue stone is "in a place called Woodstock, wired into the handle of a marijuana roach clip owned by a hippy [sic] named Argyle." Some stories are predictable, but Wood packs them with historical details that should keep readers interested ("When her brothers came to visit, they greeted her, as all Roman male relatives greeted their kinswoman, by kissing her on both cheeks. This was not a gesture of affection, but rather a covert way to detect wine on a woman's breath"). Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalIn her latest book, Wood, who is well known in Europe for her epic novels (The Prophetess), chronicles human development by following the passage of a precious stone throughout history. The stone, a striking blue meteorite that fell to Earth three million years ago, is first found by early humans in Africa when they are just learning to plan for the future. They attribute this new understanding to the discovery of the stone. Thus begins the legend of the stone as it passes through history from ancient Israel, to Imperial Rome, to medieval England, to the colonial Caribbean and finally the American West. In each episode, the individuals who come into contact with the stone are captivated by its beauty, influenced by the powers instilled in it, and often involved in significant human cultural developments. In each era, Wood creates genuine, engaging characters whose stories are fascinating although a bit uneven in the later episodes. This novel should earn Wood the larger audience in the United States that she deserves. Recommended for all public libraries.Karen T. Bilton, Somerset Cty. Lib., Bridgewater, NJCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.