WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 65Review_NONFICTION
eyed” Martin. The work also repeatedly
fails to distinguish between Christianity
and the wider world of religion and faith,
as Egan makes sweeping generalizations
that, in practice, only apply to Christian
Europeans. For example, Egan implies that
“literacy in the spiritual canon” and the
need to “understand religion” pertains only
to Christian theology or Catholic history,
and glaringly never includes a discussion
of European Islam or Judaism. Readers will
also question Egan’s declension narrative
equating a thriving spiritual Europe with
a hegemonically Christian one. While
Egan’s loose writing style works well as a
travel narrative, his narrow perspective
limits this work as a meditation on 21st-
century Christian faith and practice. (Oct.)★ Unfollow:
A Memoir of Loving and Leaving
the Westboro Baptist Church
Megan Phelps-Roper. Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, $27 trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-0-
374-27583-9
Phelps-Roper, granddaughter of Fred
Phelps, founder of the Westboro Baptist
Church, charts her journey from childhood
church devotee to adult skeptic in her
excellent debut memoir. She explores her
early years immersed in the insular com-
munity of her family’s church, a Kansas-
based denomination known for picketing
funerals of U.S. service members and widely
decried as a hate group. Convinced by the
church’s teachings about scripture and
sin, Phelps-Roper recounts spending her
adolescence calling America to repentance
and defending the views of the Westboro
Baptist Church vociferously on Twitter.
But then, as a young adult, in part due to
thoughtful interactions on Twitter where
she spars with critics of her church but also
“relished confounding expectations,” her
faith begins to falter. After she expresses
her doubts, she is ostracized from her
family. Phelps-Roper’s intelligence and
compassion shine throughout with electric
prose (“the foundation of it all was a belief
that our hearts had led us true when they
told us the Bible was the answer... our
unreliable, desperately wicked, deceitful
hearts), an eye for detail, and a near-
encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible. She
admirably explicates the worldview of
the Westboro Baptist Church while
humanizing its members, and recounts aHeidegger, dem-
onstrating that
Augustine’s
philosophical
arguments
about issues
such as authen-
ticity and alien-
ation continue
to resonate with
modern
thinkers. Smith
emphasizes Augustine’s description of
Christianity as “a journey of emigration,” in
which Christians are migrants searching
for home, aware of their dependence, vul-
nerability, and need of a faith community
to help them “nourish new habits” and
live faithful lives. Seeking Augustine’s
wisdom on questions—such as “what do I
want when I want to be noticed?” or “to
belong?” or “to be rational?”—Smith
illuminates Augustine’s certainty that
people find freedom and truth when they
find themselves in God’s story. By following
Augustine’s model and sharing his own
faith journey, Smith makes Augustine’s
guidance accessible to a new generation of
seekers. (Oct.)
A Pilgrimage to Eternity:
From Canterbury to Rome
in Search of a Faith
Timothy Egan. Viking, $28 (384p) ISBN 978-0-
7352-2523-7
In this engaging but underdeveloped
travelogue and exploration of European
Christianity, journalist Egan (The Worst
Hard Time) undertakes a 1,000-mile pil-
grimage from Canterbury to Rome along
the Via Francigena, a pilgrim’s trek well-
known during medieval times. Egan’s
reflections on faith, religion, and history
are informed by his own scholarship, but
mainly by the religious leaders, fellow
pilgrims, and locals he meets along his
journey. He encourages readers to confront
uncomfortable truths about violence done
in the name of Christianity and to consider
the waning of Christian power worldwide.
Unfortunately, Egan’s attempts at levity
often miss, as when the Archbishop of
Canterbury whimpers and is “so self-
effacing you want to slap him” and that
Martin Luther’s marriage to Katharina
perplexes because she was younger “and
much more attractive” than “jowly, raisin-
classic coming-of-age story without
resorting to cliché or condescending to
her former self. For anyone interested in
the power of rhetoric, belief, and family,
Phelps-Roper’s powerful, empathetic
memoir will be a must-read. (Oct.)FICTION
Beirut Hellfire Society Rawi Hage. Norton,
ISBN 978-1-324-00291-8, July
Triangulum Masande Ntshanga. Two Dollar
Radio, ISBN 978-1-937512-77-4, May
NONFICTION
All the Powers of Earth: The Political Life
of Abraham Lincoln, 1856-1960 Sidney
Blumenthal. Simon & Schuster, ISBN 978-1-4767-
7728-3, Sept.
On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green
New Deal Naomi Klein. Simon & Schuster,
ISBN 978-1-9821-2991-0, Sept.
Love Lives Here: A Story of Thriving in a
Transgender Family Amanda Jetté Knox.
Viking, ISBN 978-0-7352-3517-5, Aug.
The Hidden History of Guns and the Second
Amendment Thom Hartmann. Berrett-Koehler,
ISBN 978-1-5230-8599-6, June
Raising an Organized Child: 5 Steps to
Boost Independence, Ease Frustration,
Promote Confidence Damon Korb. American
Academy of Pediatrics, ISBN 978-1-61002-282-8,
June
Scholars of Mayhem: My Father’s Secret
War in Nazi-Occupied France Daniel C. Guiet
and Timothy K. Smith. Penguin Press, ISBN 978-0-
7352-2520-6, June
Up in Arms: How the Bundy Family Hijacked
Public Lands, Outfoxed the Federal Govern-
ment, and Ignited America’s Patriot Militia
Movement John Temple. BenBella, ISBN 978-1-
946885-95-1, June
Yank and Rebel Rangers: Special Operations
in the American Civil War Robert W. Black.
Pen and Sword Military, ISBN 978-1-5267-4444-9,
June
The Lines Between Us: Two Families and a
Quest to Cross Baltimore’s Racial Divide
Lawrence Lanahan. New Press, ISBN 978-1-
62097-344-8, May
Wildness: An Ode to Newfoundland and
Labrador Jeremy Charles, with Adam Leith
Gollner. Phaidon, ISBN 978-0-7148-7823-2, May
Fake: Fake Money, Fake Teachers, Fake
Assets: How Lies Are Making the Poor and
Middle Class Poorer Robert Kiyosaki. Plata,
ISBN 978-1-61268-084-2, Apr.http://www.publishersweekly.comONLINE
NOW