The Book of Stone

A searing psychological thriller set in pre-9/11 Brooklyn in which a family’s dark history and an estranged son’s attempt to find meaning and purpose converge.

Matthew Stone has inherited a troubling legacy: a gangster grandfather and a distant father?who is also a disgraced judge. After his father’s death, Matthew is a young man alone. He turns to his father’s beloved books for comfort, perceiving within them guidance that leads him to connect with a group of religious extremists. As Matthew immerses himself in this unfamiliar world, the FBI seeks his assistance to foil the group’s violent plot. Caught between these powerful forces, haunted by losses past and present, and desperate for redemption, Matthew charts a course of increasing peril?for himself and for everyone around him.

From the author of The Ascent of Eli Israel and There is No Other, The Book of Stone examines the evolution of the terrorist mentality and the complexities of religious extremism, as well as how easily a vulnerable mind can be exploited for dark purposes. Lyrical and incendiary, The Book of Stone is a masterfully crafted novel that reveals the ambiguities of ?good” and ?evil”.

Jonathan Papernick, a Toronto native, received his MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence. He has published two collections of short stories, There is No Other and The Ascent of Eli Israel. His work has been anthologized in Lost Tribe: Jewish Fiction from the Edge and Scribblers on the Roof, and his journalism credits include the New York Times. Papernick has been the Fannie Hurst writer-in-residence at Brandeis University, and a writer-in-residence at Bar Ilan University. He currently resides outside of Boston, MA, with his wife and two sons, and is a senior writer-in-residence at a Boston-area college.