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The Kingdom of Cain

Finding God in the Literature of Darkness
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Brief Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Andrew Klavan explores how artists' imaginative engagement with the darkness can point the way to living beautifully in the midst of a tragic world. "Andrew Klavan's book illuminates even as it explores the deepest darkness, finding truth and beauty in... Read More
Format: Hardback
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In The Kingdom of Cain, crime novelist, screenwriter, and cultural critic Andrew Klavan explores how artists' imaginative engagement with the evil of murder in film and literature can point us to ways of living honestly, beautifully, and even joyfully in a dark world.

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INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Andrew Klavan explores how artists' imaginative engagement with the darkness can point the way to living beautifully in the midst of a tragic world.

"Andrew Klavan's book illuminates even as it explores the deepest darkness, finding truth and beauty in art born of unflinching confrontations with evil." -- Daniel McCarthy, editor-in-chief, Modern Age

In his USA Today bestselling The Truth and Beauty, Andrew Klavan explored how the work of great poets helps illuminate the truth of the gospels. Now, the award-winning screenwriter and crime novelist turns his attention to the dark side of human nature to discover how we might find joy and beauty in the world while still being clear-eyed about the evil found in it.

The Kingdom of Cain looks at three murders in history—including the first murder, Cain's killing of his brother, Abel—and at the art created from imaginative engagement with those horrific events by artists ranging from Fyodor Dostoevsky to Alfred Hitchcock.

To make beauty out of the world as it is—shot through with evil and injustice and suffering—is the task not just of the artist but, Klavan argues, of every life rightly lived. Examining how that transformation occurs in art grants us a vision for how it can happen in our lives.

Klavan eloquently argues that it is possible to be clear-eyed about the evil in the world while remaining hope-filled about God's ability to redeem it all.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780310368342

Publisher: Zondervan

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 03 July 2025

Country: United States

Imprint: Zondervan

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 23.0mm

Width: 145.0mm

Height: 219.0mm

Weight: 330g

Pages: 272

About the Author

Andrew Klavan is an award-winning writer, screenwriter, and media commentator. An internationally bestselling novelist and two-time Edgar Award-winner, Klavan is also a contributing editor to City Journal, the magazine of the Manhattan Institute, and the host of a popular podcast on DailyWire.com, The Andrew Klavan Show. His essays and op-eds on politics, religion, movies, and literature have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, and elsewhere.

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