Stone Lands: A Journey of Darkness and Light Through Britain’s Ancient Places

Debut author Robertson searches for meaning among ancient stone megaliths in this meandering memoir-cum-travelogue. After her husband was diagnosed with incurable gallbladder cancer when he turned 50, Robertson found solace in revisiting the standing stone formations across Britain and Ireland that had long captivated the pair. Traveling to 14 sites—alone or with her husband and children—Robertson plays detective, contemplating why civilizations, beginning around 4000 BCE, might expend the energy to build such monuments (were they “the prehistoric equivalent of books, the stones encoded with information and stories?... They could have reminded people that they were part of a community with shared ancestors and myths”). She’s also part seeker, harboring vague hopes that the formations will heal her husband. Robertson frames the megaliths as a kind of “symbol of survival” amid “the sound and fury of human existence” in ways that are often affecting. Unfortunately, few other insights emerge, resulting in an overlong narrative that fails to provide much in the way of payoff. Emotional import aside, readers will be left wanting. Illus. (Dec.)