Sister, Sinner - by Claire Hoffman

Book Synopsis

A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year
A Must-Read: The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Millions, Alta

Long-listed for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography

"Magnificent." --Casey Cep, The New Yorker

Sister, Sinner chronicles the dramatic rise, disappearance, and near-fall of Aimee Semple McPherson, America's most famous woman evangelist.

On a spring day, Aimee Semple McPherson wandered into the Pacific Ocean and vanished. Weeks later she reappeared in the desert, claiming to have been kidnapped. The story of what happened next--sex scandals, religious persecution, legal shenanigans, the seemingly unshakable faith of thousands of followers, and the race by the media to cover it all--runs through the center of Claire Hoffman's thrilling Sister, Sinner.

America's most famous evangelist, McPherson was a sophisticated marketer who used spectacle, storytelling, and the newest technology to bring God's message to the masses. Her innovations brought Pentecostalism into the mainstream, paved the way for televangelists, and shaped the future of American Christianity. But after her disappearance, people asked: Was McPherson everybody's saintly sister, or a con-artist sinner?

A riveting journey into the rise of popular religion in America and life in early Hollywood, and told with the flavor of the period's noir mysteries, this is an unforgettable story of an iconic woman, largely overlooked, who changed the world.

Review Quotes

"Engrossing . . . Laced with romance, tragedy, courtroom drama and an alleged kidnapping . . . Vivid storytelling."
--Sarah Pulliam Bailey, The New York Times Book Review

"Superb . . . A must-read thrill ride."
--Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times

"A fantastic book about Aimee Semple McPherson--her power, her glamour, and her influence."
--Bill Goldstein, NBC's Weekend Today in New York

"An incisive and devastating exploration of early-twentieth-century fame . . . McPherson's life was in many ways one long, dramatic, extraordinary hallelujah run."
--Christine Rosen, The Wall Street Journal

"[An] engaging and deeply researched biography of a larger-than-life and largely forgotten figure."
--The Washington Post

"Fascinating."
--Dorothy Fortenberry, The Atlantic

"[A] wild ride."
--Caroline Howe, New York Post

"This biography of the fascinating Aimee Semple McPherson, America's most famous evangelist, takes religion, fame, and power as its subjects alongside McPherson, whose life was suffused with mystery and scandal."
--Sophia M. Stewart, The Millions

"A page-turner . . . [A] story of what happens when power, charisma, and religion are all mixed together . . . [and] of grace, quietly persisting amidst it all."
--Mockingbird

"A revelatory study of how power, religion, and fame intersect."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Excellent."
--David L. Ulin, Alta

"Hoffman captures the . . . extraordinary, sometimes controversial life of Aimee Semple McPherson . . . [It reads] like fiction."
--Jennifer Moore, Library Journal

"[An] empathetic--and dramatic--account . . . [of] faith, self-mythologizing, and ambition."
--Kirkus Reviews

"[Hoffman gives] her subject her due as an innovative and important part of the evangelical movement."
--Laurie Unger Skinner, Booklist

"A wild ride of a biography--part mystery story and part scandal--but also a penetrating examination of the rise of evangelical religion in America."
--Kai Bird, coauthor of American Prometheus

"An extraordinary journey into the makings of a modern prophet . . . With rigor, grace, and moxie, Hoffman renders [the Pentecostal movement's] complicated founder in Technicolor."
--Eliza Griswold, author of Circle of Hope

"A story in which megachurch meets film noir."
--Cynthia Carr, author of Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar

"Claire Hoffman is a master storyteller . . . [Sister, Sinner] has all the elements of a suspenseful thriller and a brilliant character study."
--Henry Louis Gates, Jr., author of The Black Box: Writing the Race

About the Author

Claire Hoffman is the author of the memoir Greetings from Utopia Park and a journalist reporting for national magazines on culture, religion, celebrity, business, and other subjects. She was a staff reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone. She is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz and has an MA in religion from the University of Chicago and an MA in journalism from Columbia University. She serves on the boards of the Columbia School of Journalism, ProPublica, and the Brooklyn Public Library.