STONE’S FALL

Book ID/图书代码： 04700008B21827

English Summary/英文概要：

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 充滿密謀與權力鬥爭 令人無法想像的鬥智謎題

本書根據歷史John Stone的故事，一位銀行金融家但身兼軍火商。他是一個在第一次世界大戰如此富有的男人擁有左右軍火市場、各國企業和一整個國家與歐洲大陸的能力。
John Stone左右了第一次世界大戰，以他所提供給各國的軍火間接控制了整個歐洲戰場。
本書探索John Stone離奇死亡的故事，富有的他突然地自己從位在倫敦家的窗戶墜落身亡。他被研判成自殺，但真正死因卻一直是個謎題。
故事以倒敘寫法，將時間推移，從1909年的倫敦倒至1890年的巴黎，最後在回到1867年的威尼斯，在此探尋過程中揭露John Stone的一生和死因，整篇故事的延續甚至影響之後歐洲國際的金融革命風暴、歐洲第一次所展開的大型間諜活動和至今強權國家二十一世紀的軍武競賽之背景相互對應，充滿密謀與權力鬥爭。(CL)

Awards/获奖情况：◆電影版權已售◆

版權已售:
US Spiegal and Grau; UK Cape; Canada Knopf; France Belfond; Spain Seix Barral; Holland Bezige Bij; Italy Longanesi; Russia AST

Reviews
Starred Review. British author Pears matches the brilliance of his bestselling An Instance of the Fingerpost (1998) with this intricate historical novel, which centers on the death of a wealthy financier. In part one, after John Stone falls to his death from a window in his London mansion in 1909, Stone’s seductive, much younger widow, Elizabeth, hires Matthew Braddock, who works as a journalist, to trace a child of her late husband’s she never knew existed until the child is named in his will. Braddock, a novice in the world of finance, uncovers evidence that Stone’s actual net worth was far less than commonly believed, even as he finds himself falling for his client. In part two, set in 1890 Paris, Henry Cort, a shadowy spy, provides another perspective on the bewitching Elizabeth. Stone’s own reminiscences from his time in Venice in 1867 cast further light on the circumstances of his demise. The pages will fly by for most readers, who will lose themselves in the clear prose and compelling plot. 10-city author tour. (May) ---From Publishers Weekly

“When I read Iain Pears’ An Instance of the Fingerpost years ago, I thought it was so brilliantly plotted, so compulsively entertaining, so utterly engrossing that I gave it to my father and said, ’This is the new Dickens.’ Stone’s Fall is better.”---Malcolm Gladwell

“Mr. Pears’s assured command of period history, language, lore, and attitudes is formidable.”---The Wall Street Journal

Stone’s Fall by Iain Pears is on the TV Book Club Summer Reads List for 2010.

the TV Book Club
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-tv-book-club
Summer Reads Book 5: Stone’s Fall
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Monday 14 June 2010
Iain Pears
A historical crime story of an intelligent order, with a wide, time-spanning canvas that moves from Edwardian London to Paris and Venice.
In his most dazzling and brilliant novel since An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears tells the story of John Stone, financier and armaments manufacturer, a man so wealthy that in the years before World War I he was able to manipulate markets, industries and indeed whole countries and continents.
A panoramic novel with a riveting mystery at its heart, Stone’s Fall is a quest to discover how and why John Stone dies, falling out of a window at his London home.
Chronologically, it goes backwards - London in 1909, then Paris in 1890, and finally Venice in 1867 - and Stone’s character and motivation deepen as the book progresses; in the first part he is almost an abstraction, existing only in the memory of those who knew him; in the second he is a character, but only a secondary one; in the third he is the narrator of the story. A quest, then, but also a love story and a murder mystery, set against the backdrop of the evolution of high-stakes international finance, Europe’s first great age of espionage and the start of the 20th century’s arms race.
Like Fingerpost, Stone’s Fall is an intricate and richly satisfying puzzle, completely engaging on many levels, and a triumphant return for one of the world’s great storytellers.

About the Author/作者介绍： 伊恩．皮爾斯(Iain Pears) 紐約時報暢銷作家，也是著名的藝術史專家、歷史學家。待過英國廣播公司BBC、英國無線電視台Channel 4、德國電視台ZDF等擔任記者，足跡遍及全球。1998年出版的《An Instance of the Fingerpost》使他享譽國際文壇，此書也被譯成多國語言，版權售出高達十多國。
伊恩非常擅長將藝術、歷史等元素融入他的創作題材，在這本新作也是根據一個重大的歷史神秘事件，以令人驚歎地說故事能力將野心與天份揉合其中。

Format:电子手稿

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：

原文第一章内容：有

手稿：暂无

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