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