Peter, Matthew, Thomas, John—who were these men? What was their relationship to Jesus? In this warm and witty chronicle, the author of The Disaster Artist provides rich and surprising answers to these questions, charting how the apostles' identities have taken shape over the course of two millennia. In his quest to understand the underpinnings of the world's largest religion, Tom Bissell embarks on a years-long pilgrimage to the supposed tombs of the 12 Apostles. He travels from Jerusalem and Rome to Turkey, Greece, Spain, France, India, and Kyrgyzstan, vividly capturing the rich diversity of Christianity's worldwide reach. Along the way, he engages priests, paupers, a Vatican archaeologist, a Palestinian taxi driver, and a Russian monk, posing questions that range from the religious to the philosophical to the political.