Summary of The Ruby in Her Navel
Set in the twelfth century, “The Ruby in Her Navel” follows Thurstan Beauchamp, a young and ambitious Norman who serves as a royal official at the court of King Roger II of Sicily. At this time, Palermo is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Europe, where Latin and Greek Christians, Muslims and Jews live side by side. Yet tensions simmer beneath the surface, and the fragile balance between faiths and cultures is beginning to shift. Personally, Thurstan is torn between his feelings for Alicia, his childhood friend, and his attraction to Nesrin, an Anatolian dancer. As he becomes drawn into a web of court intrigue and corruption, pressure is placed upon him to betray his superior, Yosuf, the King’s chief financial administrator and a Muslim.
Reasons to read The Ruby in Her Navel
Despite its romantic-sounding title, “The Ruby in Her Navel” is a carefully researched historical novel. The English writer Barry Unsworth won the Booker Prize in 1992 for “Sacred Hunger” and was shortlisted twice more, for “Pascali’s Island” and “Morality Play”. The novel offers a vivid portrait of medieval, multicultural Sicily at the height of Norman power. Unsworth explores how cultures coexist, and how political manoeuvring and religious suspicion can corrode a society that once seemed tolerant and pluralistic.
Setting: Palermo, Sicily (Italy)
“The Ruby in Her Navel” is primarily set in Palermo, Sicily, especially at the royal court of King Roger II (the Palazzo dei Normanni).
Original title: The Ruby in Her Navel
Year of publication: 2006
Nr of pages: 320
