Enigma, Georgia, an impoverished village, awaits the homecoming of its most renowned son, the Gospel Singer. He is fresh from the cover of LIFE and the plaudits of the Carnegie Hall crowd, with the voice of an angel and, it is whispered, the touch of a healer. Despite his celebrity, something pulls him back to his inconspicuous background, to small-town idolization and half-forgotten exploits. He will disclose the savagery at the core of his performance in front of the multitudes gathering at his feet... The Gospel Singer, Harry Crews' astonishing debut novel, is both a strange examination into the essence of the American South and a complex meditation on faith and its position in society.