Wise Blood, Flannery OConnors first novel, is the story of Hazel Motes who, released from the armed services, returns to the evangelical Deep South. There he begins a private battle against the religiosity of the community and in particular against Asa Hawkes, the blind preacher, and his degenerate fifteen-year-old daughter. In desperation Hazel founds his own religion, The Church without Christ, and this extraordinary narrative moves towards its savage and macabre resolution. A literary talent that has about it the uniqueness of greatness. Sunday TelegraphNo other major American writer of our century has constructed a fictional world so energetically and forthrightly charged by religious investigation. The New YorkerA genius. New York Times