The Stonehenge Letters by Harry Karlinsky

The title of The Stonehenge Letters immediately caught my eye for reasons obvious to any history lover. The description though was the real seller - a novel about a researcher who discovers a cache of letters in the Nobel Prize "crackpot" file that are all written by Nobel winners, (Marie Curie, TR Roosevelt, Rudyard Kipling and Ivan Pavlov), and all seek to solve the mystery of Stonehenge. The narrator, who previously was occupied with trying to determine why Sigmund Freud was not awarded a Nobel, then changes course and seeks to discover what Nobel's connection was to Stonehenge. That historical mystery (which actually is true) along with the letters and why their authors were interested in writing them (all of which is fiction) makes up the plot of this diverting and smart novel.

Much of The Stonehenge Letters is straight up nonfiction and previously published in many other places, from Nobel's childhood, the conflicted relationship with his family (one of his brothers was blown up in an accident) and his romantic affairs. Karlinsky does a nice job of providing brief biographies of the major players at the end as well as a bit of his own historical research. Personally, I never knew that Stonehenge was privately owned (or for how long) and found that very interesting. (Nothing like being told by the government you own something crucial to the nation and thus can't sell it but you are responsible for its upkeep, protecting it from the public and the public from it and the government won't help you in any way financially.) (Go Britain!)

I loved the diversionary aspect of this novel, it's dips into and out of history, (the photos are fantastic!) and the cheekiness of the author. The narrator is a rather stuffy person but committed to the truth of his story and the truth here is as wild as you would expect. Roosevelt in particular does not disappoint with his outlandish proposal which includes bonus (!) Robert Peary!

You could believe all of this, it's that well thought out, and personally I loved the fun of believing it for awhile. It's exactly the sort of imaginative pop-culture/history mash-up that I don't think we get enough of in literature. Karlinsky took a chance here with his idea but his execution is perfect. Well done on Coach House Books for publishing such a fun book.