The Violent Bear It Away

<p><b>Flannery O'Connor's second and final novel, a dark and absorbing southern Gothic conflict between the sacred and the profane.</b><br><br><i>The Violent Bear It Away </i>was described on its publication as 'one of the most original and strange books of its decade' by the <i>Spectator. </i>It displays her astonishing gifts for satire with compassion and for pathos with humour.<br><br>It tells the story of Francis Marion Tarwater, an orphan who lives 'backcountry' with his great uncle in Powderhead, Tennessee. Before the old man dies, he prophesies Tarwater's fate: 'the Lord will call him to be a prophet'.<br><br>As in her other work, Flannery O'Connor unfolds a compelling tale of obsession and religious conflict in the Deep South.</p>