Stein des Himmels

A riveting, entertaining, and richly detailed nonfiction narrative in the spirit of The Orchid Thief, Longitude and Nathaniel's Nutmeg, this is the first book ever written about Imperial Green Jade -- the rare and beautiful stone more precious than diamonds. Journalists Levy and Scott-Clark risked their lives to reach the remote "Lost Valley of Capelan" in Burma, where jadeite is still being mined. They tell a tragic story about miners held there, dying in horrifying numbers of AIDS, because they have been paid in the form of heroin. They weave this shocking contemporary story with the mythology and obsessive secret history of this unusual gem -- going back to the Burmese Court.