Secret Story of Pearls for New Book, 'Tears of Mermaids'

Stephen G. Bloom set out to trace a single pearl, from the moment a diver in Australia scoops from the ocean floor a giant oyster to the moment a woman 10,000 miles away fastens the clasp to a shimmering pearl necklace.

Like an obsessed detective, the University of Iowa journalism professor embarked on a 30,000-mile pearl chase, witnessing every stop pearls make, merrily plinking their way across lands, oceans and seas. In the process, Bloom hopscotched the world, interviewing hundreds of workers along a de facto pearl assembly line, from teenaged pearl sorters in rural China to hotshot New York auctioneers hawking twin natural pearl strands that fetched $7.1 million, the most expensive jewels ever sold.

The result of Bloom's improbable four-continent odyssey is "Tears of Mermaids: The Secret Story of Pearls," a nonfiction book released this week by St. Martin's Press.

"One of my goals was to discover exactly why pearls have captivated the world's imagination for so many years," Bloom said. "But that was only half of the equation. I also wanted to plumb the lives of the thousands of workers spread out over dozens of countries whose only connection to each other is readying for market perfect, luminescent pearls," said Bloom, the Bessie Dutton Murray Professional Scholar in the UI School of Journalism and Mass Communication, part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Read entire article about Steven Bloom's book, "Tears of Mermaids" here.