First published 2016
Dennis Covington ventures into Syria's war zones, Mexico's violent regions, and America's troubled South searching for answers about faith and violence. He witnesses bomb victims in hospital beds, meets grieving parents clutching photographs, and watches former enemies join hands in reconciliation. Covington rejects rigid doctrines and creeds, which he believes can prove dangerous and contradictory. Instead, he pursues something larger: faith in human goodness and kindness that emerges in the smallest moments. His own family struggles mirror the chaos he encounters abroad. Through these experiences, from Syria's conflict zones to his personal turmoil, Covington discovers what makes life bearable when violence and religion collide. He finds meaning not in abstract beliefs but in concrete acts of humanity that persist even in the darkest places.
Genres: religion, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: personal-journey, spiritual-quest
Setting: America, Mexico, Syria
Period: 21st-century
224 pages · Hardcover · Little, Brown and Company
Content warnings: violence