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Ben, a college senior, promised God and his mee maw that he'd be a Southern Baptist preacher, but he can't pray away the gay.
Abandoned by his father at age seven, Ben loses his mother to a car accident that same year and becomes his grandparents' responsibility and their joy.
Handing his grandfather an arrowhead that he finds at his mother's funeral, Ben sets in motion an agreement between them: Ben gifts his grandfather a stone, and his grandfather gifts him a story. Years later when Mee Maw falls ill, Ben makes yet another deal - this time with God: If Mee Maw recovers, Ben will dedicate himself to the church.These commitments inform the man he will become.
But life has a way of throwing us curve balls, and it throws Ben a doozy; no matter how hard he tries, he can't pray away the gay. And being gay is in direct conflict with his church's teachings, a roadblock to his becoming a minister.
A beautifully written and relevant coming-of-age story, The Wisdom of Stones is a tribute to one young man's heart-wrenching journey towards self-acceptance, to the relationship between a boy and his grandpa, and an exploration of the impact of each generation on the next. A tribute to the courage it takes to define and then make the right choices for ourselves, this novel is destined to become a new Southern classic.
Author: Brian Peyton Joyner.
Paperback, 365 pp, 2017.