The Ruby in Her Navel [Paperback]

Unsworth's writing oozes a richness and quality which is second to none. Indeed the greatest success of "The Ruby in Her Navel" is in the way it immerses the reader into the world of Thurstan, its narrator. Unsworth manages to evoke the sights, sounds, smells and even tastes of the twelfth-century Mediterranean in remarkable detail, from the court of King Roger in Palermo and the gardens at Favara to the pilgrim-filled streets of the town of Bari. The peculiarities of Sicily as a medieval kingdom, with its fusion of Christian and Islamic cultures, are brought out in full, and the tensions between the two communities, and between Thurstan and his mentor Yusuf, become increasingly clear as the story progresses.

Both the dialogue and the descriptive language are beautifully crafted, and Unsworth expertly draws out Thurstan's emotions in a way which is easy for the reader to identify with. The feelings which accompany his every success and failure, his loves, losses and inner conflicts, are ones which we have all experienced and have a very genuine quality about them. It is easy to feel sympathetic towards the character as he attempts to find his way in what proves to be a turbulent and difficult world,

If there is one shortcoming of this book, it is its length. It takes until about 200 pages into the book until it really starts to pick up the pace and the web of intrigue which has been gradually building around Thurstan starts to become apparent. This is unfortunate, because it means that the real action is compressed into the final 100 pages. As a result, the resolution too feels a little too neat and hurried. All the right elements are there - secret plots, shadowy enemies, simmering cultural tensions - it is just that they could be explored further.

Nevertheless, this is a very good book and easily recommended on the strength of Unsworth's characterisation, his marvellously detailled settings, and the poetic quality of his writing.

Booker Prize winner Barry Unsworth's latest novel is set in mid-twelfth century Sicily in and around the court of King Roger and in the wake of the disastrous (at least from the contemporary Christian point of view) Second Crusade.

It is a book in which intrigue and subterfuge - chiefly between Christians and Moslems jockeying for positions of power, are never far away, but it is also a love story enmeshed in deception and the naïve delusions of the protagonist, Thurston Beauchamp, about the childhood sweetheart he once cherished. This Alicia has grown to be Lady Alicia, recently widowed, alluring but mysterious and ultimately treacherous.

Simultaneously, Beauchamp finds himself drawn to the enigmatic and bewitchingly beautiful Anatolian dancer known as Nesrin. The battle in his soul between the two women who have captivated him mirrors the much more bloody battles being fought between the various factions represented in Palermo - both inter-religious and inter-denominational.

Brilliantly researched, The Ruby in Her Navel provides the reader with a fascinating insight into how little may have changed between the leaders of the Christian and Moslem communities across the centuries to the present day. However, the book is not Unsworth's greatest work and is damaged by plot contrivances which serve to connect strands of the story without necessarily convincing the reader.

Beauchamp's being duped by the simplest of confidence tricks perhaps falls into this category. So too does the all-too-convenient meeting between Beauchamp and the knight who provides the means by which he eventually finds his destiny. The description of how the scales fell from his eyes with regard to the worth of his eventual knighthood seems a little too light to dismiss convincingly what we have been told all along was not only a long-cherished dream but the very bait which drew him into the trap set for him.

But there are moments here which smack of vintage Unsworth too. I especially enjoyed the dialogue between the vengeful Mohammed and the uncomprehending Beauchamp. Unsworth is telling the story in a first person narrative from Beauchamp's point of view, so successfully conveying both the scornful, mocking contempt in Mohammed's voice and the desperate lack of understanding in Beauchamp's replies to his taunting is a trick few writers could have pulled off.

I admired Unsworth's earlier works The Songs of the Kings, After Hannibal, Losing Nelson and Morality Play more, but The Ruby in Her Navel is proof enough that Unsworth is Britain's finest living writer of fiction.

Famous for his strong historical novels containing well developed themes, Barry Unsworth here focuses on life in 1149 in Palermo, Sicily. Power struggles between east and west have left King Roger of Sicily hard pressed to maintain his throne. The Bishop of Rome and the Pope do not recognize his rule, and both Conrad Hohenstaufen (ruler of the west) and Manuel Comnenus (ruler of the east) are threatening to invade Sicily to secure their own power. Though Palermo has always been a tolerant, multi-ethnic community, a faction promoting a unified Christian front has been making false accusations against Muslims, Jews, and other "outsiders" to secure their own power.

Thurstan Beauchamp, who narrates this tale, is a young Christian, the son of a Norman knight and a Saxon mother. Thurstan works in the Diwan of Control, the central financial office at the palace, where his patron is Yusuf Ibn Mansur, a politically savvy and honest official, who will help him become influential if Thurstan can only avoid the pitfalls of the numerous factions and their plots. Traveling throughout Europe as "Purveyor of Pleasures and Shows," Thurstan finds and hires a group of five Yazidis, including Nesrin, a belly dancer extraordinaire, to come to Palermo to perform for the king. His attraction to Nesrin, however, becomes complicated when on the same trip he also reconnects with Lady Alicia, a woman with whom he was once in love. Now a widow of considerable wealth, Lady Alicia returns Thurstan's love.

Unsworth's inclusion of fine details of twelfth century life give vibrancy to his story. Wonderful, intimate scenes--Thurstan's visit to the king's church in Palermo to observe the stunning mosaic work being created by Byzantine craftsmen, for example--add color and excitement to his picture of mid-twelfth century life. The formal, "archaistic" language befits the period, and the continuing imagery of light and shadow emphasizes the ethnic and cultural contrasts among the competing ethnic groups and the conflicts within Thurstan's soul.

Though Unsworth tells a fascinating story, full of excitement, he telegraphs much of the action through obvious foreshadowing throughout. Thurstan's naivete, which makes him a sympathetic "hero" and provides excuses for some of his blunders, is a bit unrealistic, however, considering his high level of responsibility within the king's court. More complex than some of Unsworth's other recent novels, The Ruby in Her Navel is filled with vibrant detail within a fascinating historical context, however, and its emphasis on Thurstan's political and romantic coming-of-age will make it popular with lovers of historical novels with well-developed themes and images. Mary Whipple