The Dig
Now a BAFTA-nominated motion picture starring Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan and Lily James
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4.1 • 35 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
A brilliantly realised account of the most famous archeological dig in British history, now a major motion picture starring Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan and Lily James.
'Exquisitely original' Ian MacEwan
'An enthralling story of love and loss' Robert Harris
In the long hot summer of 1939 Britain is preparing for war. But on a riverside farm in Suffolk there is excitement of another kind: Mrs Pretty, the widowed farmer, has had her hunch proved correct that the strange mounds on her land hold buried treasure. As the dig proceeds against a background of mounting national anxiety, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary find...
John Preston's recreation of the Sutton Hoo dig - the greatest Anglo-Saxon discovery ever in Britain - brilliantly and comically dramatizes three months of intense activity when locals fought outsiders, professionals thwarted amateurs, and love and rivalry flourished in equal measure.
'A tale of rivalry, loss and thwarted love so absorbing that I read right through lunchtime one day, and it's not often I miss a meal' Nigella Lawson
'A delicate evocation of a vanished era' Sunday Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The real 1939 excavation of an Anglo-Saxon burial site becomes a moving tale of mortality and the passage of time in Preston's affecting novel. As war with Germany nears, aging widow Edith Pretty decides to have the mounds on her Suffolk land excavated. Self-taught archaeologist Basil Brown leads the dig, and Edith's young son, Robbie, is eager to assist. However, as the remains of an enormous ship and elaborate objects are unearthed, word reaches the British Museum, and Cambridge archaeologist Charles Phillips replaces Brown as head of the exploration. Stakes are high for all involved; Mrs. Pretty is realizing a dream shared with her late husband, whom she attempts to contact through a London medium; Brown is determined to finally make something of himself; and newlywed Peggy Piggott, brought in with her husband and erstwhile professor Stuart, finds in her work the fulfillment she's discovering won't come from her marriage. Preston is subtle but precise in his characterizations, and meticulous with period detail, weaving in newspaper advertisements and descriptions of Suffolk earth, to occasionally laborious effect. The novel is redeemed by his deep investment in his characters: they in turn become invested in the history of the ship, just as their way of life faces its greatest threat.
