The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness

by Andrew Klavan

Overview

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Andrew Klavan explores how artists' imaginative engagement with the darkness can point the way to living beautifully in the midst of a tragic world.

"Andrew Klavan's book illuminates even as it explores the deepest darkness, finding truth and beauty in art born of unflinching confrontations with evil."—Daniel Mc Carthy, editor-in-chief, Modern Age

In his USA Today bestselling The Truth and Beauty, Andrew Klavan explored how the work of great poets helps illuminate the truth of the gospels. Now, the award-winning screenwriter and crime novelist turns his attention to the dark side of human nature to discover how we might find joy and beauty in the world while still being clear-eyed about the evil found in it.

The Kingdom of Cain looks at three murders in history—including the first murder, Cain's killing of his brother, Abel—and at the art created from imaginative engagement with those horrific events by artists ranging from Fyodor Dostoevsky to Alfred Hitchcock.

To make beauty out of the world as it is—shot through with evil and injustice and suffering—is the task not just of the artist but, Klavan argues, of every life rightly lived. Examining how that transformation occurs in art grants us a vision for how it can happen in our lives.

Klavan eloquently argues that it is possible to be clear-eyed about the evil in the world while remaining hope-filled about God's ability to redeem it all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780310368342
Publisher:	Zondervan
Publication date:	05/06/2025
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Andrew Klavan is an award-winning writer, screenwriter, and media commentator. An internationally bestselling novelist and two-time Edgar Award-winner, Klavan is also the host of a popular podcast on Daily Wire.com, The Andrew Klavan Show. His work has been made into films starring Clint Eastwood, Michael Douglas, and Michael Caine. His essays on politics, religion, and culture have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, and elsewhere.

Editorial Reviews

I can think of no one who treats these vital questions with as much imagination and brilliance as Andrew Klavan. Another spectacular book!

Eric Metaxas

Andrew Klavan is what I would call a true Renaissance man. He's a brilliant writer, political commentator, humorist, and intellectual—all wrapped up in one person, with a slightly deranged sense of humor (in the best possible way). What sets Andrew apart is his ability to take the complex and make it understandable. He has a remarkable gift for finding the irony in a story while never missing the deeper insight. Whether you're laughing or pondering, you're always learning something. His podcast, The Andrew Klavan Show, is a must-watch for anyone who wants to engage with culture, politics, and faith in a thought-provoking (and often hilarious) way. If you haven't experienced Andrew Klavan's work yet, this is the perfect time to dive in. You won't regret it.

Greg Laurie

There are as many interpretations of Cain as there are murders in the world; out of this dark infinity, Andrew Klavan has written a sparkling meditation-memoir about sin, death, and his own singular journey down the mean streets of modern nihilism and into Christian faith. The bookends of his theology are not mine, but Klavan is such an openhearted, earthy guide to the eternal things he loves that although we part ways at the risen Christ as the answer to incarnate evil, I was eager to keep reading The Kingdom of Cain to the end.

Jonathan Rosen

Andrew Klavan has spent a lifetime trying to read what is written on the heart. That's a difficult thing to do, for the heart is wrapped in shadows that we mistake for substance: We are never better deceived than when we deceive ourselves. But in The Kingdom of Cain, Klavan forces himself to self-honesty by seeing the ways that art can explore evil, and the ways that evil—the real, deep genuine stuff—can show us the reality of good: the law written on the heart. As Klavan walks through artworks from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment to Hitchcock's Psycho, he tells us of the light that can be seen best in darkness.

Joseph Bottum

Andrew Klavan's book illuminates even as it explores the deepest darkness, finding truth and beauty in art born of unflinching confrontations with evil. The Kingdom of Cain is a brilliant exploration of literature, film, and indeed theodicy.

Daniel Mc Carthy

I can think of no one who treats these vital questions with as much imagination and brilliance as Andrew Klavan. Another spectacular book!”

New York Times bestselling author Eric Metaxas