Company of Stone: A Memoir

While on a lone tour in the rugged Scottish highlands, John Moore flees a freezing rainstorm by seeking shelter in a remote monastery. He nestles into the brotherhood—hardly believing what he learns about blind chance and the best of human nature. Later, a chance conversation overheard in a village pub steers him to become a rock drill operator in a large industrial gold mine. The dangers he encounters among the provocative, frightening, lost men of the mine, who seek anonymity in a world deep underground, challenge both his endurance and his sense of self.
With sensitivity and humor, Moore explores the unexpected lessons learned in the strange but rich monasticism of forgotten men—a brotherhood housed in crumbling medieval masonry and, one shared in the dangerous rocky depths of the gold mine.
This engaging adventure of discovery is full of unexpected surprises, leaving the reader torn between the call to adventure that lives at the heart of human nature and the gratitude for the safe embrace of the easy chair that affords the luxury of living vicariously.