The Heartless Stone

Starred review from April 3, 2006
After his fiancée dumps him and he's left with a diamond ring to unload, Men's Health
contributing editor Zoellner crisscrosses the globe unlocking the mystique of this glittering stone "that brings misery to millions of people across the world." Zoellner probes how "blood diamonds" are used to fund vicious civil wars in Africa; how De Beers, seeing new markets to exploit, linked diamonds to the ancient yuino
ceremony in Japan and played on caste obsession in India; and how India is pushing Belgium and Israel out of the gem trade. The author is expert with vivid prose: Australia's Argyle deposit is "shaped a little like a human molar"; impoverished urchins in the diamond-smuggling haven of the Central African Republic get high on bread-and-shoe polish sandwiches; and a Brazilian miner finds a rich concentration of river diamonds but fritters away much of the loot on prostitutes and booze, and eventually is ruined by a dishonest money changer. Politically conscious consumers can now avoid African and Brazilian mines teeming with human rights abuses. Canada pulls $1.2 billion worth of rough diamonds out of the tundra every year while enforcing tough environmental laws, and a Florida company uses Siberian high-pressure chambers to create low-cost chemically perfect diamonds. This is a superior piece of reportage.

September 1, 2006
Adult/High School -Historically, the workings of the diamond industry, heavily controlled until recently by the De Beers cartel, have been filled with clandestine meetings and covert operations, and its mythos even pervades popular culture. Zoellner has traveled the globe learning about the remarkably large supply of diamonds both mined and manufactured for industrial cutting and the jewelry trade. In the countries where they are mined, they represent both auspicious wealth and abject poverty. The citizens have long been exploited by international corporate investors and bloodthirsty local warlords anxious to supply the public with a token of eternal love. Teens may be surprised to learn that the -must have - diamond engagement ring is the result of a brilliant 1930s De Beers marketing strategy, which sought to influence the thoughts, tastes, habits, and fashions of Middle America. Heavy promotion and forced scarcity continue to fuel our inclination for the gems. Readers will be alternately fascinated and reviled by this exposé , which is equally well suited to casual reading and research." -Brigeen Radoicich, Fresno County Office of Education, CA"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2006
The United States is the biggest consumer of diamonds in the world, yet the gemstones are largely mined in areas far from our shores -in Africa, the Northwest Territories of Canada, and Australia. Zoellner (contributing editor, "Men -s Health"magazine) investigates a diamond -s often brutal journey from miles below the earth to the jewelry store display case. In the author -s own words, -a diamond that goes on to sparkle on the left hand of a bride in Minnesota may have been once pulled from the lower intestine of a slain Congolese miner. - Zoellner spans several continents to discover all that is embodied in a diamond, encountering miners, smugglers, geologists, and government officials; assessing scientific, political, and philosophical realities; and separating truth from myth. His book is part personal travelog, using the return of his own proffered diamond engagement ring as the starting point, and part investigative journalism (although he compiles information more than he discovers new facts). The end result? A gem. Recommended for large public and academic libraries." -Jennifer Zarr, NYPL"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2006
Jilted by a fiancee, journalist Zoellner mulled over the emotions churned up by the return of the diamond engagement ring and decided to write up the diamond industry. A fluid account, somewhat similar to Matthew Hart's " Diamond: Journey to the Heart of an Obsession" (2001), Zoellner's is distinct for its astuteness about the psychology of diamond marketing. Presenting the example of postwar Japan, where De Beers created demand for diamonds out of thin air, Zoellner alludes as needed to the meaning attached to an engagement ring as he constructs a travelogue to remote, dangerous regions. At the base of the supply pyramid, Zoellner finds destitute miners in the Central African Republic and Brazil. Prosperity is not much more evident in India, where the author tours cutting and polishing factories; the money is concentrated in London, headquarters of De Beers. Zoellner's sharp, observant descriptions of people and places will sensitize readers to the wider processes of monopoly, smuggling, and war, all of which lurk in the background when a suitor buys a ring for his beloved. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)