Book description
A novel by Bernard Cornwell that follows the enormous success of his
Arthurian trilogy (The Winter King, Enemy of God, and Excalibur) tells
the tale of three brothers and of their rivalry that creates the great temple.
One summer's day, a stranger carrying great wealth in gold comes to the
settlement of Ratharryn. He dies in the old temple. The people assume
that the gold is a gift from the gods. But the mysterious treasure
causes great dissension, both without from tribal rivalry, and within.
The three sons of Ratharryn's chief each perceive the great gift in a
different way. The eldest, Lengar, the warrior, harnesses his murderous
ambition to be a ruler and take great power for his tribe. Camaban, the
second and an outcast from the tribe, becomes a great visionary and
feared wise man, and it is his vision that will force the youngest
brother, Saban, to create the great temple on the green hill where the
gods will appear on earth.
It is Saban who is the builder, the leader and the man of peace. It is
his love for a sorceress whose powers rival those of Camaban and for
Aurenna, the sun bride whose destiny is to die for the gods, that
finally brings the rivalries of the brothers to a head. But it is also
his skills that will build the vast temple, a place for the gods
certainly but also a place that will confirm for ever the supreme power
of the tribe that built it. And in the end, when the temple is complete,
Saban must choose between the gods and his family.
Stonehenge is Britain's greatest prehistoric monument, a symbol of
history; a building, created 4 millenia ago, which still provokes awe
and mystery. Stonehenge: A Novel of 2000 BC is first and foremost a
great historical novel. Bernard Cornwell is well known and admired for
the realism and imagination with which he brings an earlier world to
life. And here he uses all these skills to create the world of primitive
Britain and to solve the mysteries of who built Stonehenge and why.
'A circle of chalk, a ring of stone, and a house of arches to call the
far gods home' Bernard Cornwell worked for BBC TV for seven years,
mostly as Producer on the Nationwide programme, before taking charge of
the Current Affairs department in Northern Ireland. In 1978 he became
editor of Thames Television's Thames at Six. Married to an American, he
now lives in the United States.
