“A rare book that combines searing passion with a subject that has affected all of our lives.”
—Chicago Tribune

Novelist, cultural critic & former priest James Carroll marries history with memoir as he maps the 2000-year course of the Church’s battle against Judaism & faces the crisis of faith it has sparked in his own life.

“Fascinating, brave & sometimes infuriating” (Time), this dark history is more than a chronicle of religion. It's the central tragedy of Western civilization, its fault lines reaching deep into our culture to create “a deeply felt work” (San Francisco Chronicle) as Carroll wrangles with centuries of strife & tragedy to reach a courageous & affecting reckoning with difficult truths.