A Ballad of Beliefs — John McCormick

Inspired by a curious request made in 2010 to Belfast's Ulster Museum by Northern Ireland's Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure, A Ballad of Beliefs is a trilogy of novels that takes a wry look at the bewildering varieties of Christianity towards the end of the twentieth century.Set primarily in Belfast at the start of the 1990s, the story begins with seven friends hoping to spend Christmas Eve together, drinking in some of the city's bars. The friends, however, soon find themselves inadvertently caught up in a meandering quest to find nothing less than the true nature of reality.Over the course of three novels, the story becomes a sprawling epic of friendship, faith and falling in love that spirals through history, from the working-class ghettoes of Belfast to the scorched plains of Africa, and from the golden sands of Spain to the mystery and majesty of ancient Babylon. All in search of the answer to a simple question.Is love stronger than God?