“Tom Bissell’s book is consistently fascinating about the stories that crept as inexorably as lichen over a gravestone around the people closest to Jesus. The travelogue elements make for a pleasant hike out of the archive and into surprising places.”
“[An] expertly researched and fascinating book . . . Touring the sites where the Apostles' bones are believed to have come to rest, he . . . mixes lightly worn but learned material about them with some superior, often hilarious, travel writing . . . This is a serious book about the origins of Christianity that is also very funny. How often can you say that?”