The Heretic — William Baer

"The Heretic is a major literary achievement, putting the author in the ranks of Mauriac, Bernanos, Greene, Waugh, and Walker Percy. Flannery O'Connor believed that all true literature is anagogic, by which she meant that the events of the story should point beyond themselves to the ultimate meaning of life, and The Heretic is both literature and anagogic. It is also the kind of novel which, once begun, cannot be put down until the reader has finished it. It also has that test of the great in that its effects linger in the mind and imagination long afterwards. Baer has wisely anchored spiritual matters in the human, all-too-human setting of the sinful heart which gives added power to the story he so artfully tells. I can't remember when I have enjoyed a new novel more."-- Ralph McInerny