Adolf Holl's divine biography examines the life of the Holy Spirit in the context of the history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Interweaving scholarship with religion, myth, and culture, Holl expertly traces the influence of the Holy Spirit on men and women from all walks of life, down the centuries. The result is quite unlike anything written before.

The Jews recognized the Holy Spirit as the breath of God. He motivated a few Galilean fishermen to find the courage to preach a new world religion. Mohammed was inspired by him in the dictation of the Koran. Yet this same spirit has...

Called to the hospital when his fifteen-year-old daughter, Angela, is injured in a potentially fatal accident, a prominent surgeon sits and waits, silently confessing the affair he had the year Angela was born. As Timoteo s tale begins, he s driving to the beach house where his beautiful, accomplished wife, Elsa, is waiting. Car trouble forces him to make a detour into a dingy suburb, where he meets Italia unattractive, unpolished, working-class who awakens a part of him he scarcely recognizes. Disenchanted with his stable life, he seizes the chance to act without consequences, and their...