Land of Marvels (Paperback) by Barry Unsworth

from Ameise1

This wasn't really my kind of reading. I have to addmit that Unsworth's writing style is lovely but the story didn't catch my interest. It's more a kind of characteristic of the individual protagonists, which are by geographical events at the same time and same place, and therefore try to make ou...

from jayne_charles

In this novel of Mesopotamia in 1914, a stiff upper lipped Englishman is in charge of an archaeological dig, but those confounded chaps intent on organising a war won't let him get on with it and it's a dashed nuisance. And if that weren't enough there's an awful lot of bally nonsense over oil. E...

from nocto

Picked this up along with several other library book possibilities for a 'U' author to read. Didn't expect it to grab me but it easily hooked me in for the first half of the book. After that though I found it easy to put down again. Everyone else seems to concur that the ending is faster moving t...

from bachaney

Barry Unsworth's "Land of Marvels" is set in the Middle East in 1914, in an area that would become Iraq. The novel takes you into the desert with Somerville, an archaeologist searching for his big discovery. Somerville is in a race against time and circumstance--the railroad is about to be built ...

from ForeignCircus

I chose to read this book because I once dreamed of becoming an archaeologist, and having lived in the region, I was especially interested in the early history of the search for oil. Let me start out by saying that the book is definitely a better read than the flap copy might lead you to believe....