The Gift Of Stones - Softcover

`The intense story of the pre-historical moment when stone yielded to bronze . . . Crace is a virtuoso' Frank Kermode, New York Times A coastal community live prosperously crafting fine stone tools. But their proud insularity is breached by raiders, and in the violence a boy loses his arm. Useless as a knapper, he finds a role as the village storyteller, roaming far and returning home with fantastically embellished tales. When the arrival of a new metal threatens all their livelihoods, his fearless imagination becomes a lifesaving gift. `His style is as simple as it is beautiful . . . Crace reveals the dignity in human labour and the power of the passing of time' Herald `A deceptively simple book that explores profound ideas with a rare delicacy of touch' Los Angeles Times `Bewitching . . . brings a lost world to life and imbues it with a sense of wonder' Sunday Times

Jim Crace is the prize-winning author of ten books, including Continent (winner of the 1986 Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize), Quarantine (winner of the 1998 Whitbread Novel of the Year and shortlisted for the Booker Prize) and Being Dead (winner of the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award). He lives in Birmingham.