No German painter evokes such strong emotions as Caspar David Friedrich: his evening skies remain icons of longing, his mountain vistas testaments to the grandeur of nature. He inspired Samuel Beckett to write Waiting for Godot and Walt Disney to create Bambi. Goethe, however, was so enraged by the enigmatic melancholy of Friedrich's paintings that he wanted to smash them on the edge of a …
What happens when one of Germany's most important writers, himself a Muslim, immerses himself in the world of Christian art? In this book, Navid Kermani is awestruck by a religion full of sacrifice and lamentation, love and wonder, the irrational and the unfathomable, the deeply human and the divine – a Christianity that today's Christians rarely speak of so earnestly, boldly and enthusiastic…