The Blood Stone

I spotted Jamila Gavin’s The Blood Stone in a bargain bin some months back; the squarish shape of the book caught my eye. Then I read the back of the book and I was even more intrigued — it promised “a dazzling whirlwind of a journey, over seas and across the desert, into the very heart of danger,” and the clincher — it starts out in Venice, one of my all-time favorite settings for a novel (yes, I judge the book by the setting)! At P40 (less than $1), I couldn’t pass.

I went on a daytrip out of town for work, and the first book I grabbed off the shelf happened to be this one, and I ended up finishing the novel even before I made it back to the city.

The Blood Stone is a YA historical fantasy-adventure starring a 12 year old Venetian boy named Filippo, son of the famed jeweller Geronimo Veroneo. Filippo has never met his father — Geronimo went on a journey to the mystical land of Hindustan even before Filippo was born, and was never heard from again. Meanwhile, the Veroneo family plunges into direr straits each year, as the household falls under the control of cunning merchant and slave trader Bernardo Pagliarin, husband to Filippo’s sister Elisabetta.

When Pagliarin’s business runs aground, he learns of the Veroneo family treasure, an exquisite diamond known as Ocean of the Moon and pressures Filippo’s mother, Theodora, to hand it over. At the same time, a mysterious foreigner shows up on their doorstep and informs the family that Geronimo is imprisoned in Afghanistan, and hints that the Ocean of the Moon could be exchanged for ransom, and more.

Not giving up on the slim chance that their father might be alive, Filippo takes the Ocean of the Moon away from the reaches of his greedy brother-in-law. He sets off on a perilous journey from Renaissance Venice to the majestic court of Shah Jahan in Hindustan to the dark dungeons of Afghanistan, so he can save his father’s life and finally bring him home.

It is interesting to note that legends credit Venetian jeweller Geronimo Veroneo with the design of the Taj Mahal, although it has never been proven. The novel does not touch on how the Taj Mahal was built in the memory of Shah Jahan’s favorite wife, but Geronimo Veroneo does serve under the court of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. When Filippo presents the Ocean of the Moon to Shah Jahan, the emperor finds it to be the perfect gift for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, but the Ocean of the Moon has brought much grief to every hand that possesses it, and the favored empress dies soon after she receives the jewel.

I liked the blend of fact and fantasy, although there were parts that were too fantastic to take in, like how the a the size of the egg was surgically inserted in Filippo’s skull (involving a witchdoctor sawing and stitching) for safekeeping, and the jewel inside his head gave him some sort of a third eye. There were also parts of the third person narrative that abruptly shifted to Filippo’s point of view that I found unnecessary.

Despite these flaws, though, the story still managed to work its charm on me. Of course I liked the cinematic setting — Venice, Arabia, India, and Africa — and Gavin manages to do a credible job of bringing the reader to the old days in these exotic lands with her lyrical writing and a touch of Dickensian sensibility.  I also like how Gavin develops Filippo’s character from an innocent boy prone to mischief to a mature young man with the weight of his family’s future on his shoulders.

Jamila Gavin has written a bunch of other books, including Whitbread Prize winner Coram Boy (which has been adapted for stage both in London and on Broadway), which I’ve been seeing at the bargain bookstore for months now. I think I’ll go get myself a copy.

***

The Blood Stone by Jamila Gavin, paperback, 3/5 stars

Book #73 of 2010

G for the A-Z Challenge

[amazonify]::omakase::300:250[/amazonify]

*cover photo courtesy of sxc.hu