Reimagining the Sutton Hoo dig, the greatest Anglo-Saxon archaeological discovery on British soil, John Preston brilliantly dramatizes three months of intense activity on a small estate when locals fought outsiders, professionals thwarted amateurs, and love and rivalry flourished in equal measure.
In the long hot summer of 1939, Britain is preparing for war, but on a riverside farm in Suffolk there is excitement of another kind. Mrs. Pretty, a widowed farmer, has had her hunch proved correct that the strange mounds on her land hold buried treasure. As an archaeological dig proceeds against a background of mounting national anxiety, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary find, and the discovery leads to a host of jealousies and tensions.
Elegantly crafted with great tenderness and a poignant attention to detail, The Dig is more than a novel about archaeology. At its very core, this is a novel about the traces of life we all leave behind.
About the Author :
John Preston is a former journalist and arts editor of the Sunday Telegraph. He is the bestselling author of six books, the most recent of which, A Very English Scandal, was made into a BAFTA- and Golden Globe Award-winning television series starring Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw. The film adaptation of his novel, The Dig, has been released on Netflix starring Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan, and Lily James.
Simon Vance (a.k.a. Robert Whitfield) is an award-winning actor and narrator. He has earned more than fifty Earphones Awards and won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration thirteen times. He was named Booklist's very first Voice of Choice in 2008 and has been named an AudioFile Golden Voice as well as an AudioFile Best Voice of 2009. He has narrated more than eight hundred audiobooks over almost thirty years, beginning when he was a radio newsreader for the BBC in London. He is also an actor who has appeared on both stage and television.
Kate Reading is an Audie Award-winning narrator and has received numerous Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine. Her narration has been recognized as Reader of the Year by Publishers Weekly, and by Booklist's 2019 Top of the List, for the American Library Association. She and her husband, narrator Michael Kramer, record at their home studio in Maryland, Madison Productions. Learn more at KateReadingAudioBooks.com.
Fiona Hardingham is a British-born actress, singer, voice-over artist, and AudioFile Earphones Award-winning audiobook narrator. She earned a BA honors degree in performing arts from Middlesex University, London, and also studied at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
Read by Derek Perkins.
Review :
"The Dig retells the story of the famous Sutton Hoo excavation...All the elements are here for a corking adventure yarn, perhaps in the style of Howard Carter's account of the discovery of King Tut's tomb...Mr. Preston creates an intriguing and ultimately moving concoction, a true-life chronicle that delves into secrets of the heart."
-- "Wall Street Journal"
"An enthralling story of love and loss, a real literary treasure. One of the most original novels of the year."
-- "Robert Harris, New York Times bestselling author"
"John Preston's subtle novel The Dig imagines something...remarkable: an excavation that carefully, gently exposes the searchers' own lives and feelings to the light, just as they brush sand away from buried treasure...He has written a kind of universal chamber piece, small in detail, beautifully made, and liable to linger on in the heart and the mind. It is something utterly unfamiliar, and quite wonderful."
-- "New York Times Book Review"
"This is a lively and informative fictionalized account of the 1939 excavation that unearthed the Anglo Saxon royal treasure hoard, known as Sutton Hoo, in Suffolk, England. Told by multiple narrators, the story unfolds gradually, revealing its essence, much like, well, a dig...With its sense of a magical land, awareness of class concerns, and unrelenting understatement and reticence, this tale is as English as a picnic by the side of the road in a light drizzle. As Downton Abbey sinks into the sunset, bereft Abbots might find some consolation here, and, added depth, naturally."
-- "Library Journal"
"This is a wonderful, evocative book. From his simple tale of dirt, Preston has produced the finest gold."
-- "Guardian (London)"
"Very fine, engrossing, exquisitely original."
-- "Ian McEwan, New York Times bestselling author"
"Wistful and poignant. A masterpiece in Chekhovian understatement."
-- "Times Literary Supplement"
"You don't need to be in archaeology--this is a tale of rivalry, loss, and thwarted love. It's so absorbing that I read right through lunchtime one day, and it's not often I miss a meal."
-- "Nigella Lawson"
