Червеният диамант

The Red Diamond by Thomas Hürlimann. A rare, vivid, and endlessly surprising novel that shines like a literary jewel with its inner tension and inexhaustible diversity.

In a monastery school high in the Swiss Alps, an eleven-year-old boy named Arthur Goldau is brought by his mother in the autumn of 1963. He becomes "pupil 230" and learns what generations before him learned. But the vast building, where time seems to stand still, hides a secret: an extremely valuable diamond from the Habsburg crown, hidden here after the collapse of the Austrian monarchy. As Arthur and his friends follow trails leading deep into the monastery's catacombs and history, the old world around him crumbles. Rose, a village girl, introduces Arthur to love, and the voice of Bob Dylan echoes from the cold monastery walls. A Black Madonna jealously guards the diamond.