Maureen learns about Matilda, an eleventh-century warrior countess who was secretly married to a pope, and begins to see the eerie connections between herself and Matilda—connections she must trace to their source if she is to stop the wrong people from finding the Book of Love and hiding it forever.

Once there was a gospel written in Christ's own hand: a treasure of almost unimaginable magnitude, referred to by the Cathars of medieval France as The Book of Love... Fresh from her successful search for the long-hidden scrolls written by Mary Magdalene, journalist Maureen Pascal now finds herself on the trail of the legendary lost gospel known as the Book of Love.

But just as there were those who would stop at nothing to seize and suppress the Book of Love seven centuries ago, so there are those today who are equally determined that its radical message should never be revealed. In a race across Italy and France, new dangers await Maureen and her lover Sinclair as they begin to uncover secrets and shine new light on the hidden corners of Christianity.

Combining expert research with dazzling plot twists, The Book of Love is sure to thrill readers as they follow Maureen's search for clues through some of the world's greatest art, architecture, and history, until a potentially fatal encounter reveals the Book of Love to her—and to us.

Over 700,000 copies of the original hardcover and paperback editions of this stunningly popular book have been sold. Karen Armstrong's superbly readable exploration of how the three dominant monotheistic religions of the world - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - have shaped and altered the conception of God is a tour de force.

One of Britain's foremost commentators on religious affairs, Armstrong traces the history of how men and women have perceived and experienced God, from the time of Abraham to the present. From classical philosophy and medieval mysticism to the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the modern age of skepticism, Armstrong performs the near miracle of distilling the intellectual history of monotheism into one compelling volume.