Sister, Sinner - by Claire Hoffman

Book Synopsis

A Must-Read: The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Millions, Alta

"Gripping . . . Wonderfully thorough, the type of biography in which you learn just the right amount about everything . . . 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 in 1926, Aimee Semple McPherson wandered into the Pacific Ocean and vanished. Weeks later she reappeared in the desert, claiming to have been kidnapped. A national media frenzy and months of investigation ensued. Who was this woman?

America's most famous evangelist, McPherson was a sophisticated marketer who used spectacle, storytelling, and the newest technology--including her own radio station--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. Her Angelus Temple in Echo Park, Los Angeles, can be called the first megachurch. Her Foursquare Church continues, with more than eight million faithful around the world.

But after her disappearance, as crowds gathered at the water's edge, people asked: Was McPherson everybody's saintly sister, or a con-artist sinner? The story of what happened next--sex scandals, religious persecution, legal shenanigans, the seemingly unshakable faith of thousands of followers, and the race to cover it all--runs through the center of Claire Hoffman's thrilling Sister, 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

"An incisive and devastating exploration of early twentieth-century fame . . . McPherson's life was in many ways one long, dramatic, extraordinary hallelujah run. Thanks to Ms. Hoffman's wonderful book, we can now run along with her."
--Christine Rosen, The Wall Street Journal

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

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

"Hoffman captures . . . the extraordinary, sometimes controversial life of Aimee Semple McPherson . . . Readers who enjoy richly detailed biographies that read like fiction will appreciate Hoffman's latest."
--Library Journal

"[An] empathetic--and dramatic--account of [McPherson's] life . . . Hoffman's discerning biography is as much a work about faith, self-mythologizing, and ambition as it is, in Hoffman's words, 'a cautionary tale about fame.'"
--Kirkus Reviews

"[Hoffman gives] her subject her due as an innovative and important part of the evangelical movement while also showing the toll celebrity took on her personal life."
--Laurie Unger Skinner, Booklist

"Sister, Sinner is 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. Along the way, Claire Hoffman explains much about popular culture in America today."
--Kai Bird, coauthor of American Prometheus

"From the instant that Claire Hoffman casts Aimee Semple McPherson into the sea in an emerald-green swimsuit, she sets us on an extraordinary journey into the makings of a modern prophet. McPherson's story is essential to understanding the Pentecostal movement. With rigor, grace, and moxie, Hoffman renders its complicated founder in Technicolor."
--Eliza Griswold, author of Circle of Hope

"The pioneering evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson had moved multitudes by the time women won the right to vote. But her improbable life includes a mystery at its core. And Claire Hoffman has accessed new sources to uncover 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 is not only a page-turner about one of the most fascinating and mysterious lives of the era, but also a cautionary tale about the complicated, even dangerous interplay between faith and fame, messengers and the media frenzy that can ensnare them. This book 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.