The Ruby in Her Navel: A Novel of Love and Intrigue in the 12th Century - Rilegato

"The Ruby in Her Navel is captivating, sensuous, and immensely moving. It helps us understand our own contemporary world; a rare achievement. This is Barry Unsworth, the master of resonant historical fiction, on top form."
--Jim Crace

"Barry Unsworth brilliantly peoples one of the most dazzling and least known chapters of European history; I loved this book."
--John Julius Norwich

"Unsworth's subtle prose conjures up an authentically realized medieval world in which one's nationality and religion overshadow everything, and peace is only an illusion. The twisting plotline, heavy with foreshadowing, conceals as much as it reveals in this heartrending tale, which can be read either as an exceptional historical novel or a modern parable on the dangers of blind patriotism."
--Booklist

"The Ruby in Her Navel is a richly imagined novel of the Middle Ages, filled with questions of race, God, and fidelity, from the Booker Prize-winning Unsworth...Unsworth's luscious history is ripe territory for a dialogue on the ever-present struggle against intolerance, a seemingly inevitable human frailty."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Barry Unsworth is one of the three most important British novelists at work today."
--Richard Eder, The New York Times

"Unsworth's writing is unrivaled...His novels are close to perfect in an imperfect literary world."
--Ruth Rendell

"As with the novels of Brian Moore or the poetry of Larkin, there's very little the reviewer needs to say about Unsworth's fiction, except: read it."
--David Sexton, The Spectator