Do the creation stories in Genesis contradict each other? Was King David a historical figure? Why is Matthew's account of the birth of Jesus so different from Luke's? Composed of 66 books written for diverse audiences in the ancient world, the Bible is by no means selfexplanatory for the modern reader. Here anthropologist and literary critic Simon Loveday takes a fresh look at the world's most influential book, evaluating its approach to history and its literary craftsmanship, while examining how the various books of the Bible interrelate. Suitable for believer or skeptic, newcomer or scholar, Loveday's broad overview of the book itself and the world that produced it was praised by the UK's Spectator as "a hymn to an irrepressible longing in the human spirit for higher meaning.... Little short of gripping."