Damascus Gate

by Robert Stone

This novel of politics, faith, and betrayal is set in Jerusalem in the early 1990s. It describes the political and military tensions that erupt when a group of Christians announces plans to rebuild the Temple of Herod. A New York Times Notable Book for 1998, DAMASCUS GATE was also nominated for a National Book Award.

Editions of Damascus Gate

ISBN 9780684859118	Binding/Format Paperback	Publisher Touchstone Books	Date 1999	Price $1.00	Used, Good
ISBN 9780395665695	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt	Date 1998	Price $1.00	Used, Good
ISBN 9780786216321	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher Thorndike Pr	Date 1998	Price $1.00	Good

Publisher Notes

Jerusalem: where earth meets heaven, home to seekers and heretics, hustlers and madmen, dreamers and the faithful of every persuasion. In this holiest and most fractious city, where religion and politics are inextricably bound, a plot unfolds to bomb the sacred Temple Mount. Christopher Lucas, an expatriate American journalist, skeptical and searching, stumbles upon the Temple Mount plot while on assignment to investigate religious fanatics. Unwittingly entangled in the bombing plan is another American, Sonia Barnes, a Sufi convert and nightclub singer, who is drawn with Lucas into the dangerous intrigues surrounding the Old City. They encounter Adam De Kuff, an unstable Jewish guru; Raziel Melker, a strung-out Kabbalist who foists De Kuff into the role of messiah; and Jan Zimmer, a soldier of fortune routinely at the center of the world's flashpoints.

Media Reviews

"Stone's boldest and, arguably, best novel is this year's 'Mason & Dixon' or 'Underworld'. Not to be missed."

Excerpt

Each year, it seemed, the equinoctial moon inspired stranger and stranger doings, usually vaguely Pentecostal in spirit, the spontaneous outpourings of many lands. Once, to be a Protestant had meant to be a decent Yankee schoolmarm or kindly clerical milord. No longer. There had commenced a regular Easter Parade, replete with odd headgear. Anglophone crazies bearing monster sandwich boards screeched empty-eyed into megaphones. Entire platoons of costumed Latin Cristos, dripping blood both real and simulated, appeared on the Via Dolorosa, while their wives and girlfriends sang in tongues or went into convulsions.

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