Now In Paperback

"As engaging as it is provocative ... It is unsurprisingly on matters of religion that he's at his most persuasive. "The Conservative Soul" is grounded in Sullivan's tenacious Catholicism, and, as a staunch atheist, I'm impressed by his ability to write plainly, unmawkishly, even movingly, of the intermittent presence of Jesus Christ in his life. He reveres the antiquity of his church, loves the mystery and beauty of its rituals, cherishes the play of nuance and paradox in its theology, but is engaged in a running battle with the present occupant of the Episcopal Palace in Vatican City, Benedict XVI, over the issues of abortion, homosexuality, and, crucially, the role of individual conscience... Sullivan swashbuckles his way through these issues with what seems to me an enviable command of both the relevant science and the relevant theology...

What is so timely about Sullivan's book, and why it should be read closely by liberals as well as conservatives, is its embedded firsthand report on the widening ideological cracks in the house that Rove built a building that Rove used to boast was permanent and impregnable, and that Sullivan now makes look like a tottering fixer-upper," - Jonathan Raban, New York Review Of Books.

You can buy the book, just out in paperback, here.