Jesus Land: A Memoir; With a New Preface by the Author - Softcover

JULIA SCHEERES's essays, articles, and book reviews have been published in the New York Times, Elle, Marie Claire, O, The Oprah Magazine, Wired and other publications. Her second book, A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jonestown, won the Northern California Independent Bookseller Association's Nonfiction Book of the Year award. She lives in Berkeley, California, and is a member of The Grotto.

Praise for Jesus Land

New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the ALA Alex Award
Winner of the QPB New Visions Award

"This is one of the best memoirs in years. I foisted it on friends and strangers alike, and everyone loved its marvelous story, writing, humor, truth." ―Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird

"As the story gains momentum, it becomes clear that Scheeres is driven by two things: the fierce love she feels for her brother and the rising anger she experiences as she witnesses the injustices he endures. There is much praise, these days, for the detached, quietly elegant narrative. But there is little mention of the power a well-tended rage can bring to a good story. It is Scheeres's high emotion and her tight control of her narrative within that emotion that is most striking. Her anger serves her well: it is focused, justified and without a trace of self-pity. Shot through with poignancy." ―The New York Times Book Review

"What makes Jesus Land unique and easy to relate to is its unadorned, dark humor . . . Many of us could have had the misfortune of stumbling into Jesus Land but few would have the spirit to survive." ―Los Angeles Times

"[An] exquisitely wrought memoir, Scheeres emerged with sensibilities intact and learned that love can flourish even in the harshest climates." ―People

"[A] gripping memoir." ―Essence

"Unflinchingly honest." ―Washington Post

"[A] rough, brutal, and shockingly good memoir . . . Jesus Land is matter-of-fact, clear-eyed, and compassionate, without vindictiveness, which is, of course, what real Christian charity is about." ―Boston Globe

"Julia Scheeres's engrossing debut won over most of our readers . . . a reminder that what matters is not just the tale but the telling." ―Elle

"A clear-eyed memoir . . . with judicious restraint. To spend your childhood in a doctrinaire environment, whether political or religious, is to become too familiar, too fast, with the worst of human frailties--hypocrisy, bigotry, moral cowardice." ―Vogue

"[A] darkly comic memoir." ―GQ

"Julia Scheeres has written a love story that is as romantic and as sad as any recent memoir you'll read . . . What Scheeres' devastating book maps out is the story of this thwarted relationship, which somehow survives every twisted setback and deprivation to emerge intact. . . . It's tough going, but life-affirming." ―San Francisco Chronicle

"[Jesus Land] is a book readers are sure to be talking about, and references to such titles as Running With Scissors and Girl, Interrupted will likely be drawn. Scheeres succeeds at relating a harrowing life story with effortless humor and wisdom." ―Chicago Tribune

"What did Julia and David learn from their strict Christian upbringing? How to write apparently . . . Everything in this memoir, including its final tragedy, is brightly, clearly rendered, by a voice as rich in forgiveness as it has unforgivable stories to tell." ―Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"A harrowing memoir of coming-of-age amid religious zealotry . . . Scheeres manages to balance her righteous rage against fanatical hypocrisy with a smart sense of humor . . . poignant and heartbreaking." ―Mother Jones

"Jesus Land is a fascinating study of how so-called discipline warps young minds . . . poignant and [more] important to share." ―Seattle Weekly

"A real-life coming-of-age tale is told in Jesus Land. . . Scheeres . . . looks back with journalistic clarity and literary grace at her teenage years." ―PW Daily

"Jesus Land is an extraordinary memoir not just for the jaw-dropping tale it depicts, but for the wit and honesty, and literary courage within it pages. This book will make readers think of the Liar's Club and Bastard Out of Carolina, but there's nothing derivative in it. For all its hardship and terror, it is above all a love story. Scheeres is the real thing, and this is a book that should last for a long, long time." ―Tom Barbash, author of The Dakota Winters

"This book will break your heart and mend it again. Julia Scheeres peels back the shiny, plastic veneer of fundamentalist Christianity to reveal the intolerance, hypocrisy and cruelty that can lie beneath. She does this with a merciless eye for detail, and an uncanny ability to evoke the essence of the Midwest. However, it is the exquisite candor and humor which makes Jesus Land so worth the reading. That, and the simple human love that shines out of every page." ―Lisa Reardon, author of The Mercy Killers

"The grace and emotional brawn that carried Julia Scheeres through the pummeling brutality of her youth has enabled her to tell the tale with a measured intensity that pulls you to her side and keeps you there. I could not stop reading this book." ―Mary Roach, best-selling author of Stiff

"Julia Scheeres' beautifully-written memoir took my breath away―for the cruelties she suffered, for the courage it took to survive and tell her story, and for her enduring, sparkling faith. She is able to describe the everyday details of her experience with a clear, candid eye, and without bitterness―making her story vividly alive, at turns heart-breaking and humorous." ―Laura Fraser, author of All Over the Map

"In this brilliant, sorrow-filled, race-tangled memoir, Ms. Scheeres story-telling skill makes you cheer for her and her adopted brother every step of the way as they navigate a cruel childhood. You will especially love the well-written sections about Ms. Scheeres' exile to a Dominican Republic reform school―inhabited by many emotionally-uneven adults who prove the adage that some Christians are too heavenly minded to be any earthly good." ―Joe Loya, author of The Man Who Outgrew His Prison Cell

"[Scheeres] deftly exposes the disparity between her parents' religious beliefs and their actions . . . and confesses with honesty and emotion her guilt and shame at abandoning her little brother in her search for acceptance. This work will force readers to relive the angst of being a teenager at a new school and desperately trying to fit in. Highly recommended." ―Library Journal

"The writing is Dickensian in its blend of the tender, the brutal, and the absurd." ―Booklist

"The road out of an intolerant small town leads straight to a faith-based reform school in journalist Scheeres's scarifying memoir . . . A bristly summoning of unpretty events, conveyed with remarkable placidity." ―Kirkus Reviews

"A frank and compelling portrait . . . Tinged with sadness yet pervaded by a sense of triumph, Scheeres's book is a crisply written and earnest examination of the meaning of family and Christian values, and announces the author as a writer to watch." ―Publishers Weekly

Praise for A Thousand Lives

"Scheeres adds insights harvested from some 50,000 pages of letters, journals and other documents found in Jonestown and recently released by the F.B.I. The result is a gripping account of how decent people can be taken in by a charismatic and crazed tyrant. Scheeres is well placed to write it." ―New York Times

"Riveting . . . You will not be able to look away. " ––The San Francisco Chronicle

"Julia Scheeres's book sheds startling new light on this murky, mini-chapter of contemporary history. . . . the narrative is [a] compelling . . . psychological mystery." ––The Wall Street Journal

"How do you tell a new story about Jim Jones and his followers, when everyone knows how it ends? . . . Julia Scheeres' riveting A Thousand Lives gives us reason to look again." ––Miami Herald

"The first solid history of the Temple . . . less a warning about the dangers of religiosity than a clear headed chronology." ––San Francisco Magazine

"Julia Scheeres' A Thousand Lives . . . tells the tragic tale of Jonestown―in its way, a peculiarly American apocalypse." ––Los Angeles Times

"Clearly, Scheeres has immersed herself in the materials and produced a compelling version of events. Our hearts break anew upon uncovering fresh details or learning a certain slant on information we thought we already understood." ―The Jonestown Report

"For those who can picture only the gory end of Jonestown, Julia Scheeres offers a heartbreaking and often inspiring glimpse of what might have been. Her masterfully told and exhaustively researched A Thousand Lives should stand not only as the definitive word on Jones' horrific machinations, but on the utopian dreams of a bygone generation. A worthy follow-up to her superb memoir, Jesus Land." ––Tom Barbash, author of On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, and 9/11: A Story of Loss and Renewal

"The definitive book on Jonestown and the Danse Macabre of suicide and murder orchestrated by mad Jim Jones. Julia Scheeres takes us by the hand and leads us gently, inexorably, into the darkness." ––Tim Cahill, author of Lost in My Own Backyard

"Jonestown has become a grim metaphor for blind obedience--for fanaticism without regard to consequences. In the aptly titled A Thousand Lives, Julia Scheeres captures the humanity within this terrible story, vividly depicting individuals trapped in a vortex of hope and fear, faith and loss of faith, not to mention the changes sweeping America in the 1960s and '70s. She makes their journeys to that unfathomable tragedy all too real; what was truly incredible, she shows, was the escape from death by a tiny handful of survivors. Drawing on a mountain of sources compiled and recently released by the FBI, she changes forever the way we think about this dark chapter of our history." ––T.J. Stiles, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The First Tycoon

"Scheeres shows great compassion and journalistic skill in reconstructing Jonestown's last months and the lives of many Temple members (including a few survivors) . . . [A Thousand Lives is a] well-written, disturbing tale of faith and evil." ––Kirkus Reviews

"Chilling and heart-wrenching, this is a brilliant testament to Jones's victims, so many of whom were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time." ––Publishers Weekly (starred review)