This remarkable first novel gracefully combines two narratives and in its delicacy and craft becomes wat it discrives - a refinement of experience through artistic endeavour, a celebration of creative excellence.
The first story concerns the enterprise of the Bayeux Tapestry : a queen summons three hunderd of the most talented needlewomen in her kingdom to realize her vision of an exquisite work of embroidery. In the second narrative the great nenetheeth-century art critic John Ruskin visits the city of Amiens to reflect on his old age and life, using the city and his great cathedral and the statue of Mary as a unifying metaphor.
The stories are told in alternating vignettes that move gracefully in and out of one another: beautifully invented truths. ( )