"Fantastic....Right up there with In Cold Blood and The Executioner's Song."

--San Francisco Chronicle

"Powerfully illuminating....Almost every section of the book is fascinating in its own right, and together the chapters make a rich picture....An arresting portrait of depravity."

--The New York Times Book Review

"Terrifying....Startling....Moves deftly between past and present and provides a fascinating glimpse of the church today."

--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Publisher Web Site, June, 2004

Jon Krakauer's literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. He now shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders, taking readers inside isolated American communities where some 40,000 Mormon Fundamentalists still practice polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God.

At the core of Krakauer's book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a multi-layered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith. Along the way he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America's fastest growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.