Death of the Black-Haired Girl

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice “Fast-paced [and] riveting . . . Stone is one of our transcendently great American novelists.” — Madison Smartt Bell “Brilliant.” — Washington Post At an elite college in a once-decaying New England city, Steven Brookman has come to a decision. A brilliant but careless professor, he has determined that for the sake of his marriage, and his soul, he must end his relationship with Maud Stack, his electrifying student, whose papers are always late yet always incandescent. But Maud is a young woman whose passions are not easily curtailed, and their union will quickly yield tragic and far-reaching consequences. Death of the Black-Haired Girl is an irresistible tale of infidelity, accountability, the allure of youth, the promise of absolution, and the notion that madness is everywhere, in plain sight. “At once unsparing and generous in its vision of humanity, by turns propulsive and poetic, Death of the Black-Haired Girl is wise, brave, and beautifully just.” — Boston Globe “Unsettling and tightly wrought—and a worthy cautionary tale about capital-C consequences.” — Entertainment Weekly “A taut, forceful, lacerating novel, full of beautifully crafted language.” — Los Angeles Review of Books In an elite college in a once-decaying New England city, Steven Brookman has come to a decision. A brilliant but careless professor, he has determined that for the sake of his marriage, and his soul, he must extract himself from his relationship with Maud Stack, his electrifying student, whose papers are always late and too long yet always incandescent. But Maud is a young woman whose passions are not easily contained or curtailed, and their union will quickly yield tragic and far-reaching consequences. As in Robert Stones most acclaimed novels, here he conjures a complex moral universe where nothing is black and white, even if the charactersalways complicated, always compellingwish it were. The stakes of Brookman and Mauds relationship prove higher than either one could have anticipated, pitting individuals against one another and against the institutions meant to protect them. Death of the Black-Haired Girl is a powerful tale of infidelity, accountability, the allure of youth, the promise of absolution, and the notion that madness is everywhere, in plain sight. In an elite New England college, Professor Steven Brookman embarks upon a careless affair with a brilliant but reckless student, Maud Stack. She is a young woman whose passions are not easily contained or curtailed, and is known as something of a firebrand on campus. As the stakes of their relationship prove higher than either one could have anticipated, their union seems destined to yield tragic and far-reaching consequences. Hoping to save his marriage by ending an illicit affair with an incandescent but difficult student, college professor Steven Brookman discovers that the young woman's passions are not easily curtailed and that their relationship has more complicated ramifications than either anticipated.