Madison Smartt Bell

The Stone that the Builder Refused is the final volume of Madison Smartt Bell’s masterful trilogy about the Haitian Revolution–the first successful slave revolution in history–which begins with All Souls' Rising (a finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award) and continues with Master of the Crossroads.  Each of these three novels can be read independently of the two others; of the trilogy, The Baltimore Sun has said, “[It] will make an indelible mark on literary history–one worthy of occupying the same shelf as Tolstoy’s War and Peace.”

"Extraordinary. . . . Exhilarating. . . . These books do what novels are meant to do: they propose their own vivid and inexorable history." --The New York Times Book Review

“A towering work. . . . Bell has emerged as one of the most brilliant, artistic and daring historical novelists of our time. . . . He has created that rarest of works, a masterpiece.”–Chicago Tribune

"Glows with unquenchable life. . . . Just as characters in The Stone are possessed by the lwa--spirits who guide souls--so too has Bell opened to the spirits of his characters, imagined and real." --Los Angeles Times

“Spellbinding. . . . Skillfully executed. . . . The author’s portrait of Toussaint is astounding in its intensity, complexity and detail.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Must be considered among the most important artistic accomplishments of our . . . century. . . . Could easily cement Bell’s reputation as one of his generation’s greatest authors.” —San Francisco Chronicle