The Stone Carvers
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The Stone Carvers is a 2001 historical and World War I novel by the Canadian writer Jane Urquhart.
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[edit] Plot introduction
The novel follows three generations of Canadians, starting with an immigrant German priest who founded a church in an isolated town in 19th century Ontario. The story concentrates on the family of the wood carver who helped make the church. Through their eyes of his grandchildren, the novel explores the devastation of World War I, the building of the Vimy Memorial to commemorate the Canadian war dead in France, and the human need to live, love, remember and memorialise.
[edit] Plot summary
In the mid-19th century, Father Gstir is sent from Germany to Canada to minister to German-Catholic communities. He is drawn to Shoneval, a farming town situated in a valley in Ontario, and is determined to build a stone church with a bell. Joseph Becker, a master woodcarver, helps him.
Later, Becker tries to pass on his carving skills to his grandson, Tilman, who is unenthusiastic, and Klara, who is more receptive. Tilman suffers from constant restlessness and is unable to stay in one place, often running away from the settlement for weeks at a time. Aged 12 he leaves for good.
Klara falls in love with Eamon, the silent son of an Irish family, but is hurt when he leaves her to fight in World War I. After he is reported as 'missing' Klara is devastated, and attempts to shut out her memory of him and her emotions, and lives the life of a spinster.
After leaving home, Tilman spends several years as a hobo on the roads and rails, before settling down with an Italian family. But when war comes he serves in the trenches of France, where he is 'injured out' after losing his leg in battle at Vimy Ridge.
Aged in his 40s, Tilman returns to Shoneval, and Klara is reunited with the brother who had been assumed dead years ago.
She becomes determined to travel to France with Tilman to help carve the massive Vimy Memorial being built by Walter Allward. After overcoming her brother's reluctance they travel to France and start work on the monument, Klara disguised as a man.
After some weeks, and without permission, Klara sculpts Eamon's face on a key statue on the top of the memorial. Despite his initial anger, Allward sees how the change personalises and enhances the monument. He retains the alteration.
Klara falls in love with Giorgio, a friend of Tilman's who is also working on the monument, and for the first time since Eamon's death she opens up her emotions. Tilman also opens himself up to emotional intimacy for the first time, with a war-wounded French chef.
The novel ends with the imposing memorial completed, Allward all but forgotten, and Klara and Tilman now leading emotionally happy lives with their partners in Canada, having memorialised the people they knew who had been taken by the war.
[edit] Major themes
Among other themes, The Stone Carvers deals with the loss of war, the loss of love, and the human need to remember and somehow memorialise those who have departed.
[edit] References to actual history and geography
Walter Allward and the memorial on Vimy Ridge are historical facts; however, the novel's detailed depiction of him is fictional.
[edit] Awards and nominations
The Stone Carvers was a finalist for the Governor General's Award and the Giller Prize.
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