The Coral Thief

The Coral Thief
Author: Rebecca Stott
Publisher: Random House (2009)
ISBN: 9780385531467
pages: 278

Genre: historical fiction
subgenre:

4 (out of 5) STARS

Annotation: In 1815 France, a young medical student discovers that the beauty who shared his coach has stolen the rare coral specimens he carried and soon he encounters a ring of philosopher thieves determined to sabotage pre-Darwinian theories of evolution.

Summary: Paris, 1815. Napoleon has just surrendered at Waterloo and is on his way to the island of St. Helena to begin his exile. Meanwhile, Daniel Connor, a young medical student from Edinburgh, has just arrived in Paris to study anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes–only to realize that his letters of introduction and a gift of precious coral specimens, on which his tenure with the legendary Dr. Cuvier depends, have been stolen by the beautiful woman with whom he shared a stagecoach.

In the fervor and tumult of post revolutionary Paris, nothing is quite as it seems. In trying to recover his lost valuables, Daniel discovers that his beautiful adversary is in fact a philosopher-thief who lives in a shadowy world of outlaws and émigrés. Daniel’s fall into this underworld is also a flight, for as he falls in love with the mysterious coral thief and she draws him into an audacious plot that will leave him with a future very different from the one he has envisioned for himself, Daniel discovers a radical theory of evolution and mutability that irrevocably changes his conception of the world in which he lives. (www.goodreads.com)

Evaluation: The Coral Thief was our selection for the historical fiction book group. I enjoyed this book though I am not sure it was the best selection of historical fiction available. Some general complaints from our book group members were that they did not like the characters, particularly the main character, the book dragged in some places, and it did not hold their interest. I found the book to be soothing and relaxing but maybe not the most amazing book written.

Read-a-likes:
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCraig
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
The Forgery of Venus: A Novel by Michael Gruber