The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness

by Andrew Klavan

How can we "rejoice always" when the world often seems so broken? Andrew Klavan explores how artists' imaginative engagement with the darkness can point the way to living beautifully in the midst of a tragic world.

In his USA Today bestselling The Truth and Beauty, Andrew Klavan explored how the work of great poets helps illuminate the truth of the gospels. Now, the award-winning screenwriter and crime novelist turns his attention to the dark side of human nature to discover how we might find joy and beauty in the world while still being clear-eyed about the evil found in it.

The Kingdom of Cain looks at three murders in history--including the first murder, Cain's killing of his brother, Abel--and at the art created from imaginative engagement with those horrific events by artists ranging from Fyodor Dostoevsky to Alfred Hitchcock. To make beauty out of the world as it is--shot through with evil and injustice and suffering--is the task not just of the artist but, Klavan argues, of every life rightly lived. Examining how that transformation occurs in art grants us a vision for how it can happen in our lives.

Klavan eloquently argues that it is possible to be clear-eyed about the evil in the world while remaining hope-filled about God's ability to redeem it all.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, Philosophy, Christian, Art, Literature, Spirituality

272 pages, Hardcover

Published May 6, 2025

About the author

Reference for now:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_K...

Reviews

[Jolie Dubriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so sad that I finish this book in three days. Out of all the quotes in this book that’s going to stick with me for quite sometime is, “Jesus is the way out of history”. I have never heard a phrase like that in my youth or in my adult life as a person who loves history this is like bull’s-eye to how we face the world daily. Andrew Klavan has written a well thought out commentary of our human world. I recommend this to everybody for good quick read.

[iSamwise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Klavan’s nonfiction is as brilliant and entertaining as his novels.

[Ginny Yurich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal!! Captivating topic and lots of food for thought - typical of Klavan’s work

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and remarkably perceptive

Klavan explores murder in cinema and literature and how its portrayal has morphed along with the death of God in culture. As a novelist and a screenwriter, Klavan has the expertise to pick up on details and themes that casual movie watchers may be likely to miss. He analyzes several horror films (eg Psycho, Silence of the Lambs) and novels (Crime and Punishment, East of Eden), and in the final section turns his eye to some classic works of art.

A prominent theme is the retelling and reworking of the original murder story, Cain and Abel:

Cain does not believe that God is just. He responds in a fury by murdering his brother. It is as if he is shouting at heaven, “Oh, so my offering is not good enough for you? Try this one on for size!”

Abel is an offering of infinite value. Cain is sacrificing the image of God to God.

That is what murder is. It is the killing of the imago Dei. It is to replace God's image with our own, God's will with our own, God's creation with our own. It is the disobedience of Adam and Eve made flesh.

That is why murder is a kind of suicide. To kill the image of God is to kill what accuses us from within.

That is why suicide is a form of human sacrifice. It is meant to appease God— pacify him— by returning him to himself so we are free of him.

It makes perfect sense that God would reenter history through the first act of history, through sacrifice.

Overall I found this quite interesting and thought provoking. It makes me want to read Klavan’s The Truth and Beauty too.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conversational/informal tone, but more philosophical than I expected, although it’s not meant to be scholarly (10). Clever and witty, with lots of connections between books/movies and their bases in real-life murders, but contains a little too much self-promotion (references to his other books). I wouldn't describe the thesis as insightful, but Klavan provides interesting history—he's clearly knowledgeable and curious about a lot. In Part 1, the book sometimes loses the thread as he dives into the details of various films, and in Part 2, it's far worse, with unclear coherence with the rest of the book. Ultimately, Part 1 is fun and worth a quick read.

Introduction: Murder and the Imagination
4-5: Lost Cause and Gone with the Wind
7: evil as an atmosphere
9: form a response to corruption (creativity and joy)
11: sadism (de Sade)
17: murder and creation are opposites
21-24: overview
- Part 1: 3 historical murders that became the bases for literary works
- Part 2: 3 practices to confront evil

Part 1: The Art of Murder
Ch. 1: Crime and Punishment
28: 1834 murder
29: Lacenaire/Byron comparison
32–40: Dostoevsky bio
40–42: Crime and Punishment summary
42–50: Nietzsche bio
50–70: Leopold and Loeb (Klavan does some imaginative reconstruction)
70–73: Woody Allen
73–76: Michel Foucault

Ch. 2: Psycho
84–87: Horror Hotel (also 122–24)
88–94: Ed Gein story
93/94/95: Oedipus
105–12 Psycho summary; 112: Wikipedia reference :(
113–14: Texas Chainsaw Massacre
115–16: Black Christmas (1974)
116–17: Exorcist
117–18: Halloween
118–19: Dressed to Kill
119–22: Silence of the Lambs

Ch. 3: East of Eden
128: Steinbeck
129: 5 themes in this chapter: the knowledge of good and evil, sin and sex, the battle of brothers, murder as suicide, and murder as sacrifice
129–31: Gen. 2–4
132–33 (and 143–44): Paradise Lost (and Klavan's The Truth and Beauty)
133–34: Byron's Cain
134–35: theodicy; Neiman
135–36: Brothers K
136–37: The Rapture
139–40: Lewis's Great Divorce
145–46: Hypostasis of the Archons
146: Gen. 3:16 and Gen. 4:7 (parallels?)
148: Hero's Journey (Campbell)
149–50: Osiris/Set, Zeus/Poseidon/Hades, Romulus/Remus, Hamlet's father/uncle, American Civil War, Ishmael/Isaac, Esau/Jacob, Joseph/brothers, Aaron/Moses, David and Solomon (not first-born), Jesus as Second Adam, Jews/Christians
151–53: Girard and mimetic desire

Part 2: The Practice of Creation
Ch. 4: This Is My Body: Morality and the School of Ritual
177: another Wikipedia reference :(
185: finally gets to communion

Ch. 5: The Prison of Desire: The Role of the Therapeutic
therapeutic miracle
186–88: prelapsarian death in Eden :(

Ch. 6: A Certain Splendor: Art as the King to Theodicy
227: Apollo/Delphi history
almost hallucinatory vision of a museum filled with the world's art (odd emphasis on nudity)

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrew Klavan is a fiction writer, and a bloody good one, but if he retired from mystery writing and concentrated on his non-fiction I'd be okay with that.

Klavan's view of faith and Christianity are incredible, he recognizes the brokenness of this world we live in, his writing isn't Christian drivel, of which there is a lot, but he is writing of his personal experiences and reflections on art and Christianity's influence on art.

I can't recommend The Kingdom of Cain highly enough, it is inspired.

[Celeste · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s very rare for a nonfiction book to truly grip me, but The Kingdom of Cain held me rapt from its first page to its last. I absolutely loved Klavan's style from page one. His prose is equal parts erudite and captivating. Stylish, but not fussily so. Klavan paints the world as it is, dark and broken and often horrific, but he does so in a way that allows room for God to illuminate that darkness. A host of literary and cinematic works are mentioned, and Klavan’s discourse regarding them was fantastic. The fact that this book made me reconsider Crime and Punishment, caused me to second guess my dislike and dismissal of it, speaks volumes for Klavan's craft. He's an incredibly compelling writer, one who communicates the difficult and erudite in interesting, digestible ways.

This is a gritty work, one that doesn't shy away from distasteful, alarming facts in its reporting. While Klavan doesn't revel in the details, he bluntly states the darker desires and dabblings of the most disturbing of his subjects. This is especially true of all those who idolized Nietzsche and Sade and their atheistic philosophies. In this book, Klavan discusses the interplay between famous murders, the artistic works they inspire, and the further murders that drew inspiration from those works. For instance, Crime and Punishment and the thoughts of Nietzsche were both inspired by Pierre François Lacenaire, a handsome, sophisticated, amoral murderer in 1834 Paris who was inspired by the Marquis de Sade. Other murderers, Leopold and Loeb, were then inspired by Nietzsche and Sade. And are still romanticized in literature and cinema and on stage to this day.

One of the portions of the book that fascinated me most was its display of the pipeline that led from Sigmund Freud to the real murders of Ed Gein to artistic works like Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, and The Silence of the Lambs, and the ways in which each work built on those that came before it. Through that pipeline, we see the way that Freudian psychiatry, by seeking to explain sexual deviance has instead excused it, led to a devastating breakdown in morality in various fronts. “Psychiatry...has blinded us to man's spiritual nature and his spiritual ills."

Regarding The Silence of the Lambs, Klavan wrapped up his thoughts with this conclusion: "Whether she knows it or not. Clarice is following the same bright star followed by the wise men of old. Without him, we cannot know we are made in the image of God. Without that image, the body has no meaning but itself. The body is meat."

The back half of the book differs drastically from the front half, moving from edgy literary criticism into softer, more contemplative memoir. In it, Klavan brings us into his burning desire to live life to the full, confesses his discovery that morality necessitates the existence of God, and shares his faith experiences from there. He discusses rituals and therapy, the importance of asking hard questions and what we can learn by witnessing good art.

The Kingdom of Cain is unlike any other work I’ve nonfiction had the pleasure of reading. And it was a pleasure, in spite of the darkness of the material, owing to Klavan’s excellence in his craft. This book made me look at dark art differently, seeing it as a way to showcase truth and Truth against even the most sordid of backdrops. If you’re looking for a unique work of Christian nonfiction mixed with discourse on literature and the arts—and if you have a strong stomach—I would highly recommend this book.

Below are some of my favorite quotes and passages from the book, saved mostly for my own future benefit. Feel free to read on if you would like a further taste of Klavan’s writing and thoughts.

"My choice to follow Jesus has shaped the way I define evil...Evil is the absence of love."

"The opposite of murder is creation—creation, which is the telos of love. And because art, true art, is an act of creation, it always transforms its subject into itself, even if the subject is murder. An act of darkness is not the same thing as a work of art about an act of darkness."

"...when an artist uses his imagination to create a true work of art about murder, he is confronting death with art, making creation out of destruction, containing evil within an act of love."

"From our first cry to our last one, life is little more than letting go, a long goodbye. The pain, the grief, the traumas physical and emotional that scar our minds: sorrow is so woven into the very fabric of material existence that to turn our faces from it is to turn away from life itself, In the presence of our mourning mortality, even Jesus wept."

"It is the awful things that raise the big questions, that limn our doubts about morality and meaning, that heighten our suspicion of ourselves, and stir our secret shame at the half-hidden truth of our own nature. Humanity is revealed in its sin, because humanity is sinful."

"To acknowledge the existence of God is to confront the reality of the moral order. Morality is not a fiction, or an evolutionary emanation, or a social construct, or a subjective narrative dependent on culture, time, and place. It is the human perception of a spiritual truth. Like everything else we know, we know it only in part... Because the world, for all its sweetness, is not at all what it should be. The very atmosphere is riddled with corruption."

"Because it is not in heaven but in this world that we are called to rejoice, this world of such terrible darkness. It is here and now that we are commanded to make what we see into the beautiful. Not in a better past. There never was one. Not in a future utopia. There will be none until Christ returns. And that flatters believers with a happy ending. There are no happy not in the dreamy warmth of some hymn-singing Christian tale endings, not in this, the only life we know. No happy endings, no innocent cultures, no righteous people, no better yesterday or tomorrow. There is only this life, this moment, in which we must cultivate the peace that passes understanding and grow the creative joy that is Christ in us. We have only one sinful self to love. Only sinful others to love as we love ourselves. There is no one to point a finger at who is not our own reflection. There is no one to forgive but everyone... We are called to joy. Here. Now. In a world full of murder. In the kingdom of Cain."

"The cannibal is the model of mankind, the truth we hide behind our social graces."

"What Alfred Hitchcock understood understood even if he did not understand he understood it-was what Dostoevsky understood and Nietzsche too: that the long withdrawing tide of faith was the central event of our time, maybe the only event that really mattered, and the collapse of the Christian moral order would inevitably follow, was following."

"Art, in the end, can only portray man's soul in the age through which it is living."

[Chad D · Rating 4 out of 5]

This sort of thing needs to be encouraged.

Upon finishing I find myself just simply thankful that someone writes like this. He's read Dostoyevsky and Camus and C. S. Lewis and John Steinbeck and a third-century Gnostic. He knows about the framing plot of The Taming of the Shrew. He name-drops Lord Byron and Aquinas. His quick discussions of Nietzsche, Freud, and Foucault remind me of why those gentlemen give me the creeps and give me new reasons for doing so.

What the book SAYS isn't particularly original. It's more what it does and how it does it. Andrew Klavan is a smart, well-read, thoughtful man who has grappled with the problem of evil through his entire smart, well-read, thoughtful life. He's written a whole bunch of mystery and suspense novels as part of that grappling. And now he lays out the movies (those too) and texts that have been his conversation partners, and lays out his tentative conclusions too, which aren't particularly original because they generally agree with what Christians have thought throughout the centuries. Which is, if you think about it, good news. Not many Christians are writing cultural criticism this rich, this accessible, and this eloquent at the same time.

[Wesley Busch · Rating 4 out of 5]

If man can make beauty out of pain and murder, God can do infinitely more.

[Jill Crosby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would’ve easily been a 5-star book, but for the length. I wanted more!

[Cristina Vargas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Klavan has become a 21 century CS Lewis, gone noir

This is not academic theology. You will notice it is not, because it is engaging and fun to read . But it is deep and enlightening, and will show you the light of transcendence , even in the darkest places. Films buffs will especially enjoy Klavan's take on Hitchcock, and the whole book is a must read in the theology of cinema. Did I mention how fun it is? The Klavanly wit is all here, and will make you laugh more than once, while still treating his subject matter with outmost seriousness. And Klavan's prose keeps getting more beautiful and poetic. Treat yourself to the audio book too.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Goodreads Giveaways and Zondervan for giving me the opportunity to receive and read this book.

It is clear from this text that Klavan is an intelligent man with a keen eye and sharp mind for thoughtful research. During Part 1, Klavan intricately weaves his sources into a discussion of three famous murder cases in history. It is interesting to me how he connects philosophical thinkers, filmmakers, writers, and personal anecdotes to expand upon each of the murders. I learned a lot both in terms of the murders themselves and the pieces that they inspired. For me, I think one of the biggest takeaways from this section in terms of hope in the face of despair can be summarized by the following found in Klavan’s introduction: “in this sense, when an artist uses his imagination to create a true work of art about murder, he is confronting death with art, making creation out of destruction, containing evil within an act of love.” Another fun thing I learned from this section is the origin of the verb “to gaslight.” Likewise, I enjoyed the reflection that “in eternity, you may not find that God makes good out of evil, you may find that it was always good, you simply did not see it complete.”

Part 2 seemed in large part to be a summary of Klavan’s own thoughts, opinions, and experiences. It was interesting to read about his perspective. For example, I found the sentiment (as previously described by René Girard) that “thinkers are not alone in the world; many will read their thoughts and take them seriously and follow them to their natural conclusions,” to be fascinating. I also enjoyed the statement that “[life] is a journey through the vagaries of the body to the reality of spiritual love.”

I gave this book three stars out of five because, while I found it enjoyable while reading, I do not imagine myself picking this book up to read it again. I did learn things from this book, as discussed above, but I also found things that I did not agree with sprinkled throughout it as well. There were sentiments and opinions that were openly, and sometimes repeatedly, expressed without any sound justifications surrounding the claims. The harshness of these statements, when placed in the same text as the cohesive flow of the analytical approach to the three murders, left a bad taste in my mouth that I could not make peace with. Ultimately, I do not regret reading it, but I do not foresee myself being called to read it again.

[Brittany Zimmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read that combines classic literature, classic film, famous works of art, C.S. Lewis, and the Bible into a narrative about how evil brings us to the foot of the cross and into Divine Goodness. Really enjoyed this read!

“We live in the kingdom of murder. We live in the kingdom of Cain. But if out of our suffering such beauty can come, then surely there is another kingdom.”

[William Monaco · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Justine Olawsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one but Andrew Klavan would or could write a book like this.

"Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." So exhorted St. Paul to the Church at Thessalonica, a command from God in Scripture that endures down through the ages. Yes. But how? How can one "rejoice always" in a world so darkened by sin and suffering?

"My subject is murder and the imagination," Klavan concludes his introduction. "My premise is that murder is evil. My belief is that God is love, and love is the source of joy." In the first half, he explores three iconic murders (the first two you may never have heard of) and the works of art that have rippled outward from them over the years, trying to make sense, so to speak, of what seem like senseless acts. The murderer as superman/artist - clearing a path for his own noble pursuits by eliminating any riff-raff in his way? Nietzsche and Dostoevsky and even Hitchcock worked through these implications. The murderer as sexual dysphoriac - using the bodies of others to project his own transformative needs? None explored this more thoroughly than Hitchcock, which, as Klavan contends, paved the way for a whole genre of psycho-sexual slasher movies. And murder as the cry of the heart against God, against self, against the very act of creation and execution of justice? Klavan takes us back just east of Eden to the very first murder - directly into the Kingdom of Cain.

Three acts of human destruction from the timeline of history are then followed by an exploration of three regenerative acts of creation: the first is the immersion in the life of the divine, the second in engaging with others along the way, and the third is the response of art to the darkness of the fallen world and the longing of the human heart for transcendence.

For my money, the imaginative journey through two thousand years of Christendom's answers to the darkness and the longing was the crown of this book, as it was surely meant to be. Because, the most shocking thing is that the pinnacle of humanity's response to the darkness that shrouds this world in which we are commanded to rejoice is a work of sublimity entitled Pieta - the image of the murdered God and His suffering Mother. "If," Klavan asks, "out of this ultimate depth of suffering, if out of this infinite darkness of grief, if out of this cosmic catastrophe of injustice, the hands of mortal man can sculpt such perfect beauty, then what beauty can God not carve out of this sorrowful world in the liquid white marble of eternity?"

We live in a world shaped largely by murder, but Christ has overcome the world. And so, we rejoice.

[ThePrill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ll caveat this by first saying, I think Klavan is a fantastic writer. His memoir, ‘The Great Good Thing’ is personal and flows very nicely, despite the sort of fringe theology that he held to at the time. However, I don’t think this book delivered on what its premise is. It read as some sort of ‘memoir part two’, but without most of the allure of its predecessor. I was greatly looking forward to his takes on Raskolnikov, Cain, etc., but what was delivered was head-scratching. Granted, the section on Dostoevsky and Nietzsche was brilliant, but the book is so overly-philosophised that it loses its charms and comes across as very crude.

No, Klavan, we did not need page upon page of discussing the sexual undertones to various murders, the sexual undertones (and overtones) in horror films, the over-describing of various sexual perversions. Klavan seems to know what he wants to argue, but his argument rambles, interspersed with personal anecdotes and a fixation on the bad and the ugly. I also expected Klavan’s argument to follow literary murders, larger themes, etc., which he didn’t really do. This was disappointing, as, again, Klavan has a great voice in writing and knows how to make a book flow. The premise and title promised so much as well. This book started out so well, but fell flat basically right after page 50. I can commend those first 50 pages highly, but after that, unfortunately, it’s best to give this one a bye.

[Aurelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

ELECTRIC. I loved it and couldn’t put it down. Absolutely wild reading these horrific murder stories, but when fleshed out (no pun intended) they’re incredibly spiritually profound and give good insight into the truth of morality and evil— especially Cain & Abel, obviously.
I agree that censorship/sugar-coating reality in art is a problem, as it hinders revelational truth and spiritual resilience. In many cases, it also suppresses crucial experiences which lead people to faith. The fact is we exist in a world polluted with darkness and death, therefore we can’t just celebrate/acknowledge art that only embraces sanitized spaces and ideal scenarios. The horrific acts in great art can serve to illuminate moral truths and point beyond themselves (i.e. the character of Rodion Raskolnikov). It is through the transformation of those honest portrayals of ugliness/suffering that we have redeeming beauty and meaning.

One of my favorite passages in here explains murder as a form of suicide:
“To kill the image of God is to kill what accuses us from within. That is why suicide is a form of human sacrifice. It is meant to appease God— pacify him—by returning him to himself so we are free of him. It makes perfect sense that God would reenter history through the first act of history, through sacrifice … Jesus is the door out of history.” GOSH I LOVE THAT

[Bee (Bre) Mercadefe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodreads, catch up. I really need a decimal rating system here.

3.95 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The final chapter alone almost turned this book to a solid four-star read for me. Andrew Klavan is clearly a talented writer and I really enjoyed reading this book, part of me feels like it should have been longer especially considering what the topic is. I really wanted to get… more, if that makes any sense at all. As far as did he prove his thesis? Yes, he most definitely did.

I really think this was only scratching the surface of a very very very wide topic, I would love to see a lot of this expanded and brought to cover other topics, especially with applying the thesis to other topics, such as true crime consumption and balancing the thirst for justice in this moment here on earth with the thirst for God’s perfect justice that has the final say.

But, maybe that’s a book for me to write, or someone else.

Overall, this book ticked all the boxes for me.. I learned something from it, walked away with a deeper perspective and I do indeed want more. I look forward to seeing more non-fiction work from Mr. Klavan.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5-3 stars. The first chapter on Dostoevsky and Nietzsche, etc was so excellent. I was so excited to continue reading. And then chapter two was all about Hitchcock’s movie Psycho and an exploration of evil through film. I much prefer to read about literature over movies, but I hung in there greatly anticipating Chapter 3 on East of Eden. How disappointing to discover that chapter hardly talked about Steinbeck’s excellent novel but instead focused on Cain and Abel and other conflicts between brothers. It wasn’t a bad chapter, just not what I expected or fitting to its title. And then Part Two of the book became much more of a memoir and a philosophical meandering. While it’s beautiful in prose, I found the second part hard to grasp and hard to track. I ended up skimming the last several chapters in disappointment.

[fleegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love anything (book, podcast, documentary, interview) where it’s a creative person talking about creative things. That’s what this book is, an author talking about art and literature, (even true crime) and connecting it all together in humanity.
I enjoyed the first half much more than the last half. The author sprinkles autobiography throughout the book, but the last half was more autobiographical and less about the literature.

[Pamela Mogen · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can a book be hauntingly beautiful when dealing with the unspeakable evils that men (generically) do to each other both in real time and in the imagination that drives the modern arts? In The Kingdom of Cain, Andrew Klavan traces the echo of horrific, historical evil acts over centuries into the inspiration for books, film, and even more evil acts. Things that our "better angels" would urge us to shun but instead stick to our culture and fester like the corpse strapped to the backs of condemned traitors in ancient Roman. It is because, as Klavan explains, we live in the Kingdom of Cain, the first murderer, yet also in the Kingdom of Christ.

Klavan's book is a highly original examination of the "problem of evil." He looks unflinchingly at the accounts of murderous deeds and then traces the aftermaths of their influence over space and time and over subsequent men's actions and cultural philosophies up to the present day. Such a catalog would be an unremitting trail of horror if not for Klavan's equal insistence of an accompanying phenomena--the "problem "of beauty.

The Kingdom of Cain ends with a vision of the world as a glorious art museum poised at the far end of a plain littered with destruction. The pieces housed there tell our history of reaching for beauty that has ended in despair. But, we are not to give up hope--there is a door...

Thank you, Mr. Klavan, for another book that calls us to beauty and assures us that it is not an illusion.

[Hannah Carr · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an interesting read. Klavan has such a unique and insightful perspective on the human condition. It has been a long time since I have read a book that made me confront our total depravity as a human race, and in turn, my own. Klavan connects famous murders, the philosophies behind or inspired by those horrific murders, and famous works of art. Without God, without Christ, we are merely flesh seeking pleasure and power, and other humans are just meat to us, means to an end. But with Christ, we have a hope and a future. We have a purpose and life. We see beyond the material to the spiritual. Walking away from this read, I grieve for those who have yet to surrender to Jesus, yet I praise the Lord for my hope and salvation in Him.

[Lisa Beth Hutchins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know how to write about this book. It is not like any other book I've ever read. It is almost like Carl Truemans Strange New World, but through the lens of murder. It is also a beautiful apology of an artist. Some parts made me cringe, some were inexplicably deep, thoughtful, beautiful. I would recommend this book, but not to everyone. You have to understand what he's doing to appreciate it, and even then it's tough. I'd like to read the story of his conversation next.

[AJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most profound books I've read in a long time. Deeply shifting understanding of the culture's descent into depravity and a clear look at how God and love are the answers. The dark is hard to look at or endure. But the light and beauty is still there transforming the kingdom. Still processing this book. loved it.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really really enjoyed the beginning, then it kind of got too deep for me. I liked it, I liked being challenged by it, but I had a little bit of trouble following. The final chapter was very good though!

[David Rice · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading his book ‘The Truth and Beauty’ last year I quickly preordered this one with the hope it would be as well researched, beautifully written and captivating. I was not disappointed. Much to chew on and savor in this book.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was harder for me to get through. I started out strong but then there's a lot of material the author presents and he dives deep into the pool of philosophy. I thought it would be more surface level stuff; it wasn't bad, I was just unprepared. 😅

[Joseph Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

You guys I promise I didn’t know he was a right wing podcaster when I started this book don’t cancel me!

[Michaela Loughran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very very dark read, but Klavan hits on some quite profound points in this brief book. It's an insightful analysis of the difference between good/true literature and art that is also dark because life is dark and totally corrupted wickedness and darkness for the sake of darkness. Organizationally and topically it can feel a little bit all over the place, but if you can stomach it through the incredibly depraved figures and topics of the first two-thirds, the last third is a moving treatment of the response beauty gives to human darkness and suffering. Also Klavan's dry and hilarious sense of humor provides some respite from the heavy subject matter.

[Clint Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written from an incredibly creative mind. Only Klavan could have done this.