The Stone Carvers was written by Jane Urquhart and published in 2001. Urquhart’s works often include themes of art and the characters are often artists. In The Stone Carvers, the protagonist is not only an artist but also a woman whose name is Klara Becker. In her carving work, she barely manages to emotionally detach herself enough to do the physical motions. Every change in her stone figure is charged so powerfully with her emotions and grief.
Set during the time period of World War I, The Stone Carvers starts in France, near Arras, but the novel traces a Canadian family, a wood carver’s descendants until World War One. This family lives in the fictional town of Shoneval, Ontario. Two generations after the original wood carver couple, the grandchildren are living in the aftermath of the war to end all wars, using their art to create some kind of beauty in the darkness and destruction.
