The Thief of Words - Hardcover

"The Thief of Words is a dazzling novel. It explores the complexities of different cultures as well as those of the human heart. Starling Lawrence is a splendid writer." -- Alistair MacLeod, author of Island and No Great Mischief "In his lovely new novel, Starling Lawrence asks whether once something has happened, is there anything to do other than regret or forget. In The Thief of Words, Nora probes events long ago on a college summer in Africa, and the man who loves her can only listen and wait. The ending is beautiful and sad and all-too-human." -- Christopher Tilghman, author of The Right-Hand Shore

Young, and full of an unfathomed desire to immerse herself in Africa, Nora Fenton arrives as a volunteer in a coastal village in Sierra Leone: an American innocent, an accident waiting to happen. She has little understanding of the turbulence in her heart, of the complexities of race and religion in this place, or the hidden politics of the diamond trade. The layered account of her love affairs -- prickly Aurelia, a South African refugee; soft-spoken, green-eyed Morlai -- is interspersed with the confession by a writer named Owen of his doomed love for Nora years later in New York. In the angles between these characters lies a kaleidoscope of hidden stories and half-truths, wherein simplicity is fractured into unbearable complexity. And throughout, Owen's voice - masterful, elegant, and yet unhinged by loss - casts a spell, drawing us in and ratcheting up the intensity until we arrive at the devastating final chapters.