Solace of Stone: Masterful - a book to savor and ponder about

Set in Sicily and other parts of Europe, Solace of Stone brings together two unlikely characters: George, a lonely architect, whose memories into the past we follow in this book, and Charlotte, an emotionally-wounded woman. Told in almost poetical prose, this novel demands to be savored and not read quickly. Although it appears to be a love story, the novel is more about the confusing impulses that compel both characters to lead the lives they have followed. The important of intuition and its consequences are all there, with the clear message that it's important to make the best of this short life we live.
Touching, emotional, powerful, and thoughtful. This is a high quality novel that stands out from the many books we find today.

Latest Review

'Solace of Stone' is a touching and complicated love story.

George and Charlotte, the book's two protagonists, struggle with emotions of regret, loss and loneliness. Where can people find solace: in nature, work, philosophy, art...other people? If you want to embrace life, should you lose yourself in Beethoven and Brahms, or the breaking of waves on the reef? David de Wolf gently probes these and other questions of human nature throughout 'Solace of Stone'.

I recommend this book to fans of Proust's 'A la recherche du temps perdu', or anyone who prefers soulful and mature writing to shallow sensationalism.

From Solace of Stone

She recognized the scenario: as on a summer evening, when the tempest gathers in the east, and when the sun, ignorant of her impending setting, seems to exert herself, then the sharp reflections on the clouds create a light that is inconceivable in clear daylight. The tempest exists and you know it’s there, but as long as you look at the bright side, the threat doesn’t exist and life appears more vivid than ever. But Charlotte no longer had the option to look away from the tempest; she couldn’t even rise to the feeling of melancholy, since even that feeling suggests life.

From Solace of Stone

Nature is an overture to death, a volatile shore of timeless loneliness. If you want to live, it's better not to look at nature but at humanity in its often woeful, sometimes triumphant civilization. There one can find solace. If you want to embrace life it makes more sense to listen to Brahms’ Fourth Symphony than to the breaking of the waves on the reef.



Quote from Solace of Stone