Origin of the Brunists
Set in a small mid-American town, this nvoel begins with a coal-mine explosion that claims ninety-seven lives. Giovanni Bruno--hawk-faced, silent, some say deranged--is the only survivor. A lapsed Catholic given to peculiar visions, Bruno is adopted as a prophet by a group of secretive small-town mystics. "Exposed" by the town newspaper editor, the Brunist cult gains international notoriety and its ranks swell. As its members gather on the Mount of Redemption--above the site of the mine disaster--to await the apocalypse, and the fabric of the community begins to unravel, the author lays bare the madness of religious frenzy and the sometime greater madness of "normal" citizens.