Under The Banner of Heaven

From the bestselling author of Into the Wild and Into Thin Air , a riveting account of Taliban-like theocracies in the American heartland controlled by renegade Mormon prophets.Brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty insist they were commanded to kill by God. Krakauer's investigation is a meticulously researched, bone-chilling narrative of polygamy, savage violence and unyielding faith: an incisive, gripping work of non-fiction that illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behaviour. 'A provocative look at the twisted roots of American fundamentalism' - EVENING STANDARD BOOKS OF THE YEAR'Excellent... A lucid, judicious, even sympathetic account not just of Mormon Fundamentalism but of the seductive power of fanaticism in general'-DAILY TELEGRAPH'Krakauer writes exceptionally well: as thrilling as Capote on true crime, as devastating as Nietzsche on religious fundamentalism'-SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY'Remarkable... For anyone interested in the wilder frontiers of spiritual conviction, this book is a must' - INDEPENDENT'Krakauer is an adept chronicler of extremists, and he's as intent on understanding religious fanatics as he was in his earlier books on exploring the obsessions of monomaniacal adventurers' - LOS ANGELES TIMES