In spring 2011, Anthony Shadid was one of four "New York Times" reporters captured in Libya, cuffed and beaten, as that country was seized by revolution. When he was freed, he went home. Not to Boston or Beirut where he lives or to Oklahoma City, where his Lebanese-American family had settled and where he was raised. Instead, he returned to his great-grandfather's estate, a house that, over three years earlier, Shadid had begun to rebuild. "House of Stone" is the story of a battle-scarred home and a war correspondent's jostled spirit, and of how reconstructing the one came to fortify the other. In this poignant and resonant memoir, Shadid creates a mosaic of past and present, tracing the house's renewal alongside his family's flight from Lebanon and resettlement in America. In the process, Shadid memorializes a lost world, documents the shifting Middle East, and provides profound insights into this volatile landscape. "House of Stone" is an unforgettable meditation on war, exile, rebirth, and the universal yearning for home.

Family trees -- Introduction: Bayt / Part I. Returning. What silence knows -- Little olive -- Three birds -- Our last gentleman -- Gold -- Early harvest -- Don't tell the neighbors -- Abu Jean, does this please you? -- Mr. Chaya appears -- Last whispers -- Khairalla's Oud -- Citadels / Part II. At home. Homesick -- A bush called Rozana -- Stupid cat -- Sitara -- Salted miqta -- Passing danger -- Home -- Worse times -- In the name of the father -- Coming home -- Oh Laila -- My Jedeida / Epilogue.