In his powerful debut, Christopher Nelson examines the progenitors and forms of violence in the twenty-first century, from Cain and Abel to the damming of rivers. We see glimpses of the speaker's quest to find and know God, seeking answers everywhere, from Spanish cathedrals filled with holy relics to withered winter fields.

Christopher Nelson is the founder and editor of the journal Under a Warm Green Linden and Green Linden Press, a nonprofit publisher dedicated to reforestation. His work has appeared in The Missouri Review, Salamander, and Superstition Review.