The Book of Stone

June 8, 2015
Set in New York City in 1998, this unremarkable thriller from Papernick (The Ascent of Eli Israel) features a protagonist many readers will struggle to like. Matthew Stone is emotionally at sea following the death of his father, Walter, a judge best known for compromising a criminal trial with his own bias. When an Orthodox Jew was charged with the murder of an Arab-American in Brooklyn, Walter put his finger on the scales. Walter's own father was a leading member of organized crime, and the Stone family's intense Jewish identity and Zionism has left Matthew indifferent to his religion and his people. When Matthew gets a Christian Arab woman pregnant, he ends up abandoning her in the face of his father's wrath. His evolution into a member of a Jewish terrorist network planning a major attack in New York is both superficial and psychologically underdeveloped. Heavy-handed prose doesn't help ("The Twin Towers rose above the jumbled chaos of Lower Manhattan like the two tablets of the original Law").

Starred review from April 15, 2015

Papernick's provocative debut novel (after two story collections) explores the motives of religious extremism and how it can attract those in search of identity. When Judge Walter Stone dies in his Brooklyn apartment, his listless son Matthew is forced to confront his checkered legacy--Walter left the bench in disgrace after "jurymandering" a trial in favor of an Israeli man who bashed a Palestinian-born shopkeeper to death; his grandfather Julius was a reputed gangster in the time of Meyer Lansky; and his mother left when Matthew was a child. Feeling adrift, Matthew loses himself inside his father's stacks of books, searching for a connection the two never shared when Walter was alive. His loyalties are soon tested when his father's business partner asks Matthew to release funds earmarked for a museum in his father's name--a museum that the FBI believes will be a front for a terrorist operation in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Drawn into a community of believers with a singular focus, Matthew claims his Jewish heritage for the first time, falling in love in the process. He makes a choice that will set him on the true path and finally gain his late father's acceptance. VERDICT This intelligent and timely thriller is told through a Jewish prism, but Papernick's persuasive insights into the nature of fanaticism and its destructive consequences could be applied to any ideology. Highly recommended.--Michael Pucci, South Orange P.L., NJ

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2015
Matthew Stone's father was a celebrated judge who died disgraced because he went too easy on men who murdered Arabs. Now Matthew, the star of this rich, demanding novel, emerges as inheritor of his father's books, money, and lethal hatred of Palestinians. Yes, this is a crime novel, but we spend much time in Matthew's mind as he mopes about, Portnoy-like, among his own internal neuroses. (During sex with beautiful Dasi, he thinks about his mother.) Still, it's those forces swirling around and within Matthew that form the powerful core of the story, as Matthew is pulled into a conspiracy to murder Palestinian dignitaries, the emotion building until he feels, blood red and pulsing behind his ribs, the need to kill. Papernick exploits the spooky parallel here with news stories of privileged teenagers sneaking off to join ISIS, but he also finds time for charming interludes that show a different side to his character, like the sequence that has a young Matthew crossing out slurs and other hurtful words from a dictionary to sap them of their power to hurt. A rewarding literary thriller for those who will take the time it demands.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)