In THE STONE CARVERS, author Jane Urquhart weaves a masterfully constructed tale of love and war, passion and loss, spanning generations and sweeping the reader from the wilds of 19th century Canada to the post World War I battlefields of Vimy, France, where a colossal monument is being raised to honor those Canadians who fought and died in one of the most decisive battles in the war. It is at this monument that a brother and sister, recently reunited after a nearly a lifetime of estrangement, will work side by side, hoping to put their troubled pasts behind them.
Klara Becker is a 38-year-old spinster, living alone on her family's small farm in the German-settled town of Shoneval in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Over the years, Klara has come to accept and even savor the life of spinsterhood, filling up her days with tailoring, caring for her small herd of beloved snow-white cattle, and researching and recording the colorful history of Shoneval. But Klara has two things most spinsters do not --- independence and a past. Independence because she has no family to speak of --- no sick aunts to care for, no nieces or nephews to look after --- and very deep within her heart, she holds faint memories of romance. Memories of a young man she loved and lost to the war --- their brief affair lasting only a season but leaving a permanent impression on Klara that will guide her future in ways she could never imagine.
Fainter still are Klara's memories of her older brother, Tilman, who ran away from home when Klara was just 10-years-old. Always a wanderer, Tilman would disappear for weeks at a time, following the patterns of migrating birds and the winding roads and trails of Ontario. Afraid that he might disappear for good one day, his mother Helga convinces her unwilling husband Dieter to chain the 12-year-old boy to the woodshed rather than risk losing him. Horrified, Tilman thrashes against his chains, screaming and howling, until the morning an exasperated Klara takes pity on him and sets him free. Tilman runs from the woodshed and the Becker farm, never once looking back. Thirty years will pass before Klara lays eyes on him again.
The novel is divided into three distinct and compelling sections --- Klara's story of love, abandonment, and heartbreak; Tilman's tale of life on the road and in the war; and, finally, the touching recounting of their eventual reunion and unlikely journey to the monument at Vimy. It is in this final third of the novel that Urquhart's themes of loss, redemption, and forgiveness come fully into play. After a lifetime of running, Tilman Becker is emotionally and physically exhausted. Having lost his leg on the battlefield in France and no longer able to depend on his boyish charms and good looks for handouts, he reluctantly admits to himself that he has no other options but to return home. When Klara sees him for the first time limping up the lane to the house, she momentarily mistakes him for her lost love, Eamon O'Sullivan, and is hit full force with the feelings of loss and bereavement that she had kept buried for so long.
Tilman refuses to talk about his experiences in the war but tells Klara that he's heard rumors of a great stone monument going up to honor those Canadian soldiers missing in action. Having been instructed in the skill of carving by their grandfather, a master of the craft, Klara immediately suggests that the pair travel to Vimy to contribute to the effort. Tilman initially refuses but, after realizing how desperately Klara wants to go, he gives in. Brother and sister make the trip and begin work on the massive memorial, each hoping for nothing more than to somehow close the book on the past that's haunted them for so long so that they can return home and live out the rest of their lives in peace. But what they find is much more than simple closure on the past --- among the ruin and destruction each will find healing and happiness in unexpected ways.
THE STONE CARVERS is a rich and immensely satisfying story impressive in both scope and depth. Fans of Sebastian Faulks's BIRDSONG or Michael Ondaatje's THE ENGLISH PATIENT will find plenty to admire in Jane Urquhart's writing.
--- Reviewed by Melissa Morgan
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