"The Stone Face contains moments of keen insight. . . . The struggle to balance two urgent but conflicting necessities the need to be politically conscious and engaged versus the need to protect against a corrosion of the soul, the brutalisation that comes with being at war is rendered here with great sensitivity and moral intelligence." Houman Barekat, Tribune magazine
While there is much to improve in how we support each other at home and across the globe, Smith s novel reminds us of the immense power in solidarity and our duty to always rise up for justice and freedom. Zeena Yasmine Fuleihan, Ploughshares
A thought-provoking and an oddly humanizing and liberating book. Kirkus Reviews
A complex exploration of power and justice. Corrine Segal, Lit Hub
A courageous novel. . . . The Stone Face represents the maturing of a voice determined to confound preconceived notions about patriotism, Blackness and sanctuary, and accordingly the story takes no prisoners, so to speak. James Hannaham, The New York Times
The Stone Face explores the shifting nature of cultural identity and social oppression. . . The issues Smith raises in his novel resonate at least as much now as they did six decades ago. John Powers, Fresh Air
[William Gardner Smith] captures the murderous stone face of racism in action. Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily
This forthright, morally engaging 1963 novel by a neglected Black expat author applies a distinctly international perspective to questions of race and class. . . Far more than his contemporaries Richard Wright, Chester Himes, and James Baldwin, Smith (1927 74) parlayed his experiences in Paris into universal explorations of race, caste, and colonialism, earning him a place alongside them on library shelves. David Wright, Library Journal
William Gardner Smith (1927 1974) was a journalist, novelist, and editor. His first novel, Last of the Conquerors, was published in 1948, followed by Anger at Innocence, South Street, The Stone Face, and Return to Black America.
Adam Shatz is the US Editor of the London Review of Books and a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, and The New Yorker, among other publications.
