Damascus Gate - Softcover

In his earlier novels, Robert Stone has taken us to such hot spots as Vietnam, Central America and that ultimate sinkhole of depravity we call Hollywood. This time around, it's Jerusalem. Given Stone's gift for depicting both political and personal embroilment--indeed, for making the two inextricable--this particular city is an inspired choice. For starters, Jerusalem is a sacred destination for Muslims, Jews and Christians, and it remains a hotly contested one. It's also a magnet for hustlers, fanatics and millennial dreamers, a generous assortment of whom populate the pages of Damascus Gate. As always, Stone introduces a (relatively) innocent American into the picture--a journalist named Christopher Lucas. This career sceptic prides himself on his detachment, preferring the kind of story "that exposed depravity and duplicity on both sides of supposedly uncompromising sacred struggles. He found such stories reassuring, an affirmation of the universal human spirit." Yet Lucas, a lapsed Catholic, has journeyed to Jerusalem at least in part to recharge his devotional batteries. And as he's slowly drawn into a terrorist plot--which involves drugs, arms smuggling and a plan to blow up the Temple Mount--Lucas sheds his detachment in a hurry. Stone's novel functions as an expert thriller, whose slow, somewhat clunky wind-up is more than compensated for by a brilliant grand finale. It is also, however, a dogged exploration of faith, in which cynics and true believers jostle for predominance. "Life was so self-conscious in Jerusalem," the author reflects, "so lived at close quarters, by competing moralizers. Every little blessing demanded immediate record." It's hard to imagine a more vivid record of these mutual blessings--and maledictions--than Robert Stone's.

Michiko Kakutani The New York Times Gripping....The endgame he plays is masterly: thrilling, coiled, and somehow both inevitable and surprising.

James Hynes The Washington Post Book World A stunning novel by a great American author.

Daphne Merkin The New Yorker The definitive novel about Israel....Stone brings its tensions and dilemmas into characteristically sharp focus....Brims over with plots, subplots, and an impressive array of incisively drawn characters...the range of his knowledge is spectacular.

Paul Gray Time Not even his dedicated readers will be able to foresee the twists and impact of this new novel. Damascus Gate is a transcendent thriller.

Jonathan Rosen The New York Times Book Review He has faced his novel with the literary equivalent of Jerusalem stone, the luminous chiseled rock that lends authenticity to almost every building in Jerusalem....

Lisa Zeidner The Philadelphia Inquirer Damascus Gate...is the rare real thing: a cerebral thriller....Precise and passionate, Damascus Gate is a stunning achievement.

Annie Dillard Here is our masterpiece writer, Robert Stone, writing his book of books, his millennial novel of the millennial place....Here are Stone's most magnified, vivid, lunatic, and tender characters. Christopher Lucas engages us profoundly: a modest wit, who keeps faith in a faithless world....Damascus Gate is a narrative of good and evil written in letters of fire.

Publishers Weekly A major work in every aspect...bold and bracing, ambitious and inspired, Damascus Gate is...an astonishment.

Ward Just Robert Stone is an explorer who takes his readers to the fractured edges of the known world. Damascus Gate is a triumph. Stone at the height of his powers.

Francine Prose The New York Observer Complex, brilliant...Damascus Gate keeps our attention riveted...fiction that combines the pleasure of a thriller with those of a novel of ideas.