The Stone Carvers (2001) is a novel by the Canadian writer Jane Urquhart, focusing on the historical events of World War I, and the fictional town of Shoneval, Ontario.

The novel follows three generations of a Canadian family, starting in 19th century Ontario with a Bavarian wood carver and an immigrant German priest on a mission to found a church in an isolated town.

However, the story centres around the lives of the wood carver's grandchildren in the 1900s; thus exploring the devastation of World War I, the building of the Vimy Memorial in France, and what Urquart calls "the redemptive nature of making art.

"[1] Beginning with the woodcarver Joseph Becker, the novel's timeline shifts back and forth between his life in 19th century Ontario, and the pre- and post-war lives of the grandchildren Klara and Tilman.

Told in three parts, The Stone Carvers starts within Canada, moving to France as the characters negotiate their grief, and explore the human need to live, remember and memorialize.

Upon learning of the construction of the Vimy memorial, the elaborate monument dedicated to the lost soldiers without a known grave, Klara becomes determined to travel to France with Tilman to work on it.

Despite his initial anger, the designer, Walter Allward, sees amazing carving skills within Klara, and how the portrait of the young man's face increases the much desired allegory for those youthful men who were lost in the war.

[2] This, along with the use of many character's various experiences with Vimy Ridge and World War I, Urquhart articulates the idea of memory and history being a "process" where "the meanings of past events continue to change as time progresses.

[3] Post-memory within The Stone Carvers is evident from the very beginning as Urquhart outlines "The nuns and the one spinster clung to the story, as if by telling the tale they became witnesses, perhaps even participants" in the creation of Shovenal.