Robert Stone's remarkable new novel is a psychological thriller of razor-sharp intensity: mysterious, erotic, and deeply readable.

Michael Ahearn, a professor at a rural college, sheds his comfortable assumptions when he becomes obsessed with a new faculty member from the Caribbean, Lara Purcell. An expert in Third World politics, Lara is seductive, dangerous — and in thrall, she claims, to a voodoo spirit who has taken possession of her soul.

Impassioned and determined, Michael pursues Lara to her native island of St. Trinity, heedless of the political upheaval there. Together they desperately attempt to reclaim all that Lara has lost. Yet island intrigue ensnares them. Lara sacrifices herself to ritual and superstition. Michael is caught unawares in a high-stakes smuggling scheme. In his feverish state of mind, the world becomes an ever-shifting phantasmagoria. He is, himself, possessed.

In Bay of Souls, readers will recognize the trademarks of Stone's greatest fiction: the American embroiled in Third World corruption, the diplomats and covert operatives, the idealists and opportunists. Yet here the author's sights are set inward, to a place where politics is superfluous, experience unreliable. Never before has Stone probed so powerfully the psychological depths of one man's mind. What he finds there defies expectations.

"[A] tight, brilliantly observed tale....All of Stone's characters here are etched in the acid of hard truth, with Stone probing deep....[A] novel of bold prose and subtle perceptions, a small, hard gem from a master writer." Publishers Weekly

"Robert Stone is a master of language, herding words into a hypnotic circle that suggests each phrase is carefully weighed and measured." Entertainment Weekly

"Other novelists strain for profundity; Stone shows us that soul-wrenching catastrophe is a misstep away." Seattle Times

"A short, compact novel boasting the meaty, thoughtfulness of literary magnum opus and the wiry frame of a ripping thriller....[A] terse, well-crafted portrait of a man trapped in a hell of his own making." Denver Post

"[B]loodcurdling....A small masterpiece, possessed of a relentless lucidity that recalls Conrad and Graham Greene at their peaks. Stone's best yet." Kirkus Reviews

"[A] kind of small gem: perfectly chiseled and revealing an icy clarity at its core that is as frightening as it is hypnotic." Bill Ott, Booklist

"Lately Robert Stone has specialized in writing novels that combine the rich textures of literary fiction with the exciting stories of thrillers....When Stone pulls it off — as he does more often than not in Bay of Souls...the result has a fizzy, unsettling menace....This is the territory of Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene..." Laura Miller, Salon.com

Robert Stone is the author of six previous novels: A Hall of Mirrors, Dog Soldiers (winner of the National Book Award), A Flag for Sunrise, Children of Light, Outerbridge Reach, and Damascus Gate. His story collection, Bear and His Daughter, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.