A Heart of Stone: Summary and book reviews of A Heart of Stone by Renate Dorrestein, plus links to an excerpt from A Heart of Stone and a biography of Renate Dorrestein.

Renate Dorrestein is that rare storyteller who dazzles critics and captivates readers. Provocative, stylish, and emotionally resonant, A Heart of Stone (her first book to be translated into English) is certain to cause a sensation on the international scene and Viking is proud to introduce her to the American public. This beautifully woven masterpiece, spare yet richly told, plumbs the undercurrents of family life and tragedy in a startling and wise story of love, fate, and survival. Ellen Van Bemmel lives with her parents, who run an American news-clipping service, and her three siblings in an old Dutch house in a suburb of Amsterdam. Ellen's idyllic childhood is suffused with Americana, both the frivolous fringes like potato chips and Coca-Cola as well as milestones like Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon, until family disaster strikes on her twelfth birthday. From that moment on her world begins to unravel. Years later, Ellen plunges us into the past as she leafs through a faded photo album and confronts the literal and figurative ghosts of her childhood. Seamlessly alternating the past and present, taut with Hitchcockian tension and warmed by a redemptive love story, A Heart of Stone tells a darkly humorous, yet ultimately compassionate tale.

Media Reviews

Time Magazine A stunning novel about the scorching legacy of loss...fresh and hauntingly familiar.   Publisher's Weekly Dorrestein's first novel to be translated into English is a riveting psychological thriller that rates comparison with Shirley Jackson's classic, We Have Always Lived in the Castle.   Kirkus Reviews The history of a destroyed family and the mingled guilt and rage that possess the survivor who remembers, and reimagines, their story—all rendered with hallucinatory clarity in this first English translation of yet another popular and critically acclaimed Dutch author..... The climactic pages are as harrowing as anything in contemporary fiction, but you won't want to miss a word leading up to them. A triumph.   London Times Elegantly chilling...beautifully written.   Wall Street Journal ...seamlessly executed...an intuitive sense of suspense...keeps the reader off balance to the end.

Recent Reader Reviews

Rated of 5 by Rita
A heart of stone -short review
This book reveals the journey of a middle aged woman in the past, to face her tragic childhood that changed her life once and for all.It also shows how over the years, she has tried to escape form her "nightmare", but her family photo...   Read More

Rated of 5 by Ashley
I felt this book was extremely moving. The intense love between parents provides a distraction from their children, but the love of a mother for her daughter provides an excuse for murder. Dorrestein is very capable of making readers sit...   Read More

Rated of 5 by j.walker
i wasnt really a book reader but a freind told me it was a book i had to read ,so i went and bought it.and i could not put it down untill i had finished the chapter but even then i had to carry on just to make sure things were okay , it was very...   Read More

Rated of 5 by Anonymous
A beautifully written book that keeps the reader on edge until the last chapter. Her writing technique of just allowing enought information to keep you titilated until the end. I would recommend it to friends and book clubs.

Rated of 5 by Yossapon Tiranut
Awesome book, im goin to try to read this book again because i didnt really understand it in the first place but it was well written. Please if you can, just try to explain in a plain English what this book is really about, it would be...   Read More

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