'At once religious discussion, love story, mystery, delivered with the verve of an airport thriller . . . The central character of this book is Jerusalem; the book reeks of its myriad mythologies and beliefs . . . Damascus Gate is an amazing read . . . a rare and remarkable feast of writing' Scotland on Sunday 'The heir of Conrad, Hemingway and, crucially, Graham Greene, Stone is at his best when his characters are in extremis . . . the scenes of violent confrontation could not have been rendered more powerfully by any ...
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'At once religious discussion, love story, mystery, delivered with the verve of an airport thriller . . . The central character of this book is Jerusalem; the book reeks of its myriad mythologies and beliefs . . . Damascus Gate is an amazing read . . . a rare and remarkable feast of writing' Scotland on Sunday 'The heir of Conrad, Hemingway and, crucially, Graham Greene, Stone is at his best when his characters are in extremis . . . the scenes of violent confrontation could not have been rendered more powerfully by any other writer . . . formidable' Sunday Telegraph 'A book that is not afraid to take on the big themes like faith, faction, spirituality, tribalism, identity and injustice . . . It is also an extraordinary treatment of Jerusalem itself . . . With Stone, it has found the kind of imaginative interpreter that every city waits for' Sunday Times 'Writing this good should be engraved on tablets of stone in letters of fire and blood. Fantastic' Uncut 'Stone has a journalist's eye for detail, but a novelist's eye for irony . . . Damascus Gate is rich with theme and atmosphere . . . few writers could even attempt to capture, as Stone does, both the intense, combative spirituality of Jerusalem and the festering menace of Gaza' Esquire
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Add this copy of Damascus Gate to cart. $26.07, new condition, Sold by SharP.Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Rockford, IL, UNITED STATES, published 1998 by Macmillan.
The New York Times recently published an intriguing article decribing antropology's attempts to explain man's religious nature. Why does some form of belief seem to be man's default state? Can evolution, physiology or natural science explain this mystery?
In Damascus Gate, Robert Stone attempts to explain this conundrum emotionally through a tale of ex patriot seekers living in Jeruselem. The book's depth is often daunting--at times it's as if the author expects you to have a working knowledge of the Hebrew language and Jewish mysticism.
In the end, though, the journey is worth the effort as the streets of Jersulslem and the camps of the Gaza strip slowly come alive. Stone's characters tug at your heart as they carry on with only hope as their salvation.
