{"product_id":"under-the-banner-of-heaven-random-house-large-print","title":"Under the Banner of Heaven (Random House Large Print)","description":"\u003cp\u003eJon Krakauers literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN  he shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders. At the core of his book is an appalling double murder committed by two Mormon Fundamentalist brothers  Ron and Dan Lafferty  who insist they received a revelation from God commanding them to kill their blameless victims. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of thisdivinely inspired crime  Krakauer constructs a multilayered  bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion savage violence  polygamy  and unyielding faith. Along the way  he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of Americas fastest-growing religion  and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.  Krakauer takes readers inside isolated communities in the American West  Canada  andMexico  where some forty-thousand Mormon Fundamentalists believe the mainstream Mormon Church went unforgivably astray when it renounced polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City  the leaders of these outlaw sects are zealots who answer only to God. Marrying prodigiously and with virtual impunity (the leader of the largest fundamentalist church took seventy-five plural wives  several of whom were wed to him when they were fourteen or fifteen and he was in his eighties)  fundamentalist prophets exercise absolute control over the lives of their followers  and preach that any day now the world will be swept clean in a hurricane of fire  sparing only their most obedient adherents.  Weaving the story of the Lafferty brothers and their fanatical brethren with a clear-eyed look at Mormonisms violent past  Krakauer examines the underbelly of the most successful homegrown faith in the United States  and finds a distinctly American brand of religious extremism. The result is vintage Krakauer  an utterly compelling work of nonfiction that illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behavior.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44965351063605,"sku":"ByrdShop_0375432213","price":64.48,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780375432217.jpg?v=1770493842","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/under-the-banner-of-heaven-random-house-large-print","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}