About this item
What first prompted prehistoric man, sheltering in the shadows of deep caves, to call upon the realm of the spirits? And why has belief thrived since, shaping thousands of generations of shamans, pharaohs, Aztec priests and Mayan rulers, Jews, Buddhists, Christians, Nazis, and Scientologists?As our dreams and nightmares have changed over the millennia, so have our beliefs. The gods we created have evolved and mutated with us through a narrative fraught with human sacrifice, political upheaval and bloody wars.Belief was man's most epic labor of invention. It has been our closest companion, and has followed mankind across the continents and through history.
About the Author
Matthew Kneale (born 24 November 1960) is a British writer, best known for his 2000 novel English Passengers. He went to school at Latymer Upper School in West London and then studied Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford, before spending a year in Japan, when he began writing. He now lives in Italy. English Passengers won the prestigious Whitbread Book Award and was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize and for Australia's Miles Franklin Award in 2000, making him the first non-Australian author to be shortlisted for it. Kneale is the son of the writers Nigel Kneale and Judith Kerr. His other novels include Whore Banquets (1987 – winner of the 1988 Somerset Maugham Award, which was also won by his father in 1950; republished in 2002 as Mr. Foreigner), Inside Rose's Kingdom (1989), Sweet Thames (1992 – winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), and When We Were Romans (2008). In 2004,…
