Fire Sermon

From the critically acclaimed author of I Want to Show You More comes an unflinching and profound portrait of Maggie and Thomas, and their disintegrating marriage. Married twenty years to Thomas and living in Nashville with their two children, Maggie is drawn ineluctably into a passionate affair while still fiercely committed to her husband and family. What begins as a platonic intellectual and spiritual exchange between writer Maggie and poet James gradually transforms into an emotional and erotically-charged bond that challenges Maggie’s sense of loyalty and morality, drawing her deeper into the darkness of desire. Using an array of narrative techniques and written in spare, elegant prose, Jamie Quatro gives us a compelling account of one woman’s emotional, psychological, physical, and spiritual yearnings — unveiling the impulses and contradictions that reside in us all. Fire Sermon is an unflinchingly honest and formally daring debut novel from a writer of enormous talent.

"Four hundred years in the future, the Earth has turned primitive following a nuclear fire that has laid waste to civilization and nature. Though the radiation fall-out has ended, for some unknowable reason every person is born with a twin. Of each pair, one is an Alpha--physically perfect in every way--and the other an Omega--burdened with deformity, small or large. With the Council ruling an apartheid-like society, Omegas are branded and ostracized while the Alphas have gathered the world's sparse resources for themselves. Though proclaiming their superiority, for all their effort Alphas cannot escape one harsh fact: whenever one twin dies, so does the other"-

Living a Life of Fire is more than simple facts about an evangelist's life, it is filled with adventures from the heart of Africa, real-life dramatic stories of people and places that will leave you on the edge of your seat, and powerful demonstrations of the Holy Spirit working in the here and now. An autobiography of the life of one of God's generals that has left a legacy that is still impacting nations today.

"Book Two in the critically acclaimed The Fire Sermon trilogy--The Hunger Games meets Cormac McCarthy's The Road in this richly imagined post-apocalyptic series by award-winning poet Francesca Haig. Four hundred years in the future, the Earth has turned primitive following a nuclear fire that has laid waste to civilization and nature. Though the radiation fallout has ended, for some unknowable reason every person is born with a twin. Of each pair, one is an Alpha--physically perfect in every way; and the other an Omega--burdened with deformity, small or large. With the Council ruling an apartheid-like society, Omegas are branded and ostracized while the Alphas have gathered the world's sparse resources for themselves. Though proclaiming their superiority, for all their effort, Alphas cannot escape one harsh fact: whenever one twin dies, so does the other. Cass is a rare Omega, one burdened with psychic foresight. While her twin, Zach, gains power on the Alpha Council, she dares to dream the most dangerous dream of all: equality. For daring to envision a world in which Alphas and Omegas live side-by-side as equals, both the Council and the Resistance have her in their sights"--

The highly anticipated follow-up to Bishop Robert Barron's hugely successful Catholicism: A Journey to the Faith As secularism gains influence, and increasing numbers see religion as dull and backward, Robert Barron wants to illuminate how beautiful, intelligent, and relevant the Catholic faith is. In this compelling new book—drawn from conversations with and narrated by award-winning Vatican journalist John L. Allen, Jr.—Barron, founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, proclaims in vivid language the goodness and truth of the Catholic tradition. Through Barron’s smart, practical, artistic, and theological observations as well as personal anecdotes—from engaging atheists on YouTube to discussing his days as a young diehard baseball fan from Chicago—To Light a Fire on the Earth covers prodigious ground. Touching on everything from Jesus to prayer, science, movies, atheism, the spiritual life, the fate of Church in modern times, beauty, art, and social media, Barron reveals why the Church matters today and how Catholics can intelligently engage a skeptical world.

"A radiant expression of the art [Wright Morris] has developed through thirty years and fourteen earlier novels. Although it is anything but preachy it will stick in the minds of the congregation for a long time. . . . On the one hand, this is a novel of alienation and on the other, a novel about the discovery of identity. The author's overall concern . . . is the destiny of man. In this novel--perhaps more clearly and movingly than ever before--he carries the reader with him, until astonishment, awe, compassion, laughter, and exultation mingle in a tragic sense of life."--Granville Hicks, New York Times Book Review The ceremony of the old giving way to the new, the young breaking away from what is old, may well be the one constant in the ceaseless flux of American life. Fire Sermon reenacts this ceremony in the entangled lives of three young people and one old man. A chance meeting on the highway links a hippie couple to the eastward journey of an old man and a boy. For the boy it is a daily drama testing and questioning his allegiance. To which world does he belong? To the familiar ties and affections of the old or the disturbing and alluring charms of the new? One of the most distinguished American authors, Wright Morris (1910-1988) wrote thirty-three books including The Field of Vision, which won the National Book Award.

“Passionate, sensuous, savagely intense, and remarkable” stories of the American South, “like some franker, modernized Flannery O’Connor” (The New Yorker). Welcome to Lookout Mountain on the border of Georgia and Tennessee. Mixing white-hot yearning with daring humor, this short-story collection of infidelity, spirituality, sexuality, and family is at once “strange, thrilling, and disarmingly honest . . . the closet thing I’ve seen in years to Donald Barthelme’s insouciance, sweetness and ominousness” (The New York Times Book Review). These fifteen linked tales confront readers with dark theological complexities, fractured marriages, and mercurial temptations: a husband discovers the decaying corpse of his wife’s lover in their bed; an enigmatic deaf man becomes the catalyst in the destruction of his church; a child’s perspective on life is altered after the attempted murder of a loved one; an embarrassed teenager is forced to attend a pool party with her quadriplegic mother; the hole in a young boy’s heart is magically sealed when he falls in love for the first time. “Fasten your seat belt. . . . These amazing stories explore the human boundaries between the physical world and the spiritual—lust, betrayal, and loss in perfect balance with love, redemption, and grace.” —Jill McCorkle, author of Life After Life “These are stories that make you stop whatever you’re doing and read. . . . I salute a brilliant new American writer.” —Tom Franklin, Edgar Award–winning author “A brilliant new voice in American fiction has arrived. . . . She has earned a place alongside Amy Hempel, Lydia Davis, and Alice Munro.” —David Means, author of Hystopia

Is it possible to hold on to faith in an age of unbelief? Intellectual certainty has long been a cornerstone of the Christian faith. But in an age of secularism, skepticism, and cynicism, our worldviews have been shaken. Various solutions exist—some double down on certainty, while others deconstruct their faith until there is nothing left at all. But Brian Zahnd offers a third way: what is needed is not a demolition but instead a renovation of faith. Written with personal and pastoral experience, Zahnd extends an invitation to move beyond the crisis of faith toward the journey of reconstruction. As the world rapidly changes in ways that feel incompatible with Christianity, When Everything's on Fire provides much-needed hope. A stronger, more confident faith is possible when it is grounded in the beauty and truth of Christ. Zahnd permits us to risk the journey of deconstruction so that God can forge something more beautiful in its place.