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The Dig | 
 enlarge | Author: John Preston
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £2.25
You Save: £5.74 (72%)
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 2786
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0141016388
EAN: 9780141016382
ASIN: 0141016388
Publication Date: May 29, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Sent 1st class from UK within 2 working days. /sd11
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Well-crafted gem January 5, 2009
D. M. Mason
Like an archaeologist carefully scraping away dirt from a precious artefact, Preston's delicate and sensitive prose explores the motivation behind the men and women responsible for the excavation of the Sutton Hoo treasure. He is never obvious, and some might find the subtlety of his writing a little taxing, especially if they were hoping for an Indiana Jones story. But there are heroes here--the patient, self-taught, and self-effacing Basil Brown being the most obvious. The initial discoverer of the buried ship, he is shunted aside, a pawn in a tug of war between British Museum and the local museum. Peggy Piggott, the wife of the sterile archaelogist sent to replace Brown, is sensitively depicted, as she slowly discovers that her sterile marriage has less life than the fragile artefacts she uncovers. And finally, there is Mrs Pretty, the landowner who funded the excavation. It would be easy to belittle her, with her interest in spiritualism and her rumoured reliance on mediums to get her in contact with the ghost of her beloved husband. Instead, she depicted with sympathy and affection, as she is literally consumed by her broken heart.
Highly recommended.
 archaeology lite December 30, 2008
M. French (Kingston UK)
An enjoyable brief read using an interesting method of telling a story using different voices for different chapters, but it made me want to know more detail about the characters, so rather left a trail of loose ends. Maybe, archaeology cannot be made interesting on its own merits?
 Bland and at times pretty boring December 9, 2008
J. CUSACK (Bournemouth, UK)
When I read a synopsis of The Dig, it seemed to have all the ingredients for a compelling short literary novel. Unfortunately on reading the book I felt it failed to deliver on this in a number of ways.
The author has chosen to take a real event, the excavation of a Saxon burial mound at Sutton Hoo in the 30s, and dramatise it with two parallel themes running through the book. Firstly there is the external struggle between the various characters for control of the important archaeological discovery, and secondly there is their internal struggle to come to terms with their individual personal issues.
The first problem is that the struggle over the excavation is pretty limp, failing to ever really capture the imagination at any point. The second problem is that none of the characters has enough depth to make their internal dialogue particularly interesting. The book switches between first person narrations by each of the main protagonists in a manner which, in my opinion, only underlines the lack of a single particularly compelling character.
I must be in the minority in my view as the book has been critically well received, but I found it a pretty unrewarding read.
Short touching tale in 30s Britain October 21, 2008
Dr. Joanne Cronin (Ireland)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Dig is a short novel set around the discovery and excavation at Sutton Hoo in 1939. England was facing the prospect of a war, and pressure was being exerted from officials to complete the excavation prior to the outbreak of hostilities. It is against this background that the characters move. We never spend too long with one character, moving quickly from one to another. We occasionally glean anecdotal pieces of information above a previous character as we are treated to the experiences of another.
It's an easy novel to read, and makes a pleasant change to the recent trend to write tomes. However though, you may find the character development unsatisfactory or incomplete due to the short length of the novel. Personally I liked it, as it permitted me the opportunity to imagine the inbetween parts.
It's also a quite touching novel, as we are revealed the fustrations and loves of the characters. The author manages to accomplish this quite well over a short space.
All in all, a refreshing change of pace.
Poignant, well-written, brilliant. June 19, 2008
Electric Kool-Aid (London)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is a little gem of a book that completely gripped me (even though I have no interest in archaeology!). A novel about the excavation of Sutton Hoo does not immediately sound like a page turner, but it really is. Rich, evocative and deeply moving, the author artfully captures the zeitgeist of pre-war Britain.
Preston writes beautifully, managing to present his razor-sharp observations about human relationships and jealousy with a lightness of touch and dry humour that are seldom found.
This book stayed with me long after I'd finished it and left me feeling truly touched
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