renate dorrestein

In the words of bestselling author Susan Vreeland, “Renate Dorrestein knows how to chill her readers with tragedy and then melt their hearts with forgiveness.” A Heart of Stone is a story of love, fate, and survival that plumbs the undercurrents of family life with passion and skin-prickling suspense.

Growing up with her adored siblings in a rambling house in Holland, clever, precocious Ellen has an idyllic childhood suffused with Americana from her parents’ news-clipping service—from Coca-Cola to Kissinger to Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon. But amid the happiness lies terror and unimaginable heartbreak and a twelfth birthday that haunts her still. Twenty-five years later, as Ellen tries to make sense of her adulthood, she brilliantly captures her loss and longings and her struggles to dispel the ghosts of her past.

“A stunning novel about the scorching legacy of loss.”—Time

“A striking and finely tuned novel.”-The New York Times