Confessions

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Garry Wills is an exceptionally gifted translator and one of our finest writers on religion. His bestselling Penguin Lives biography, Saint Augustine, received widespread and glowing reviews, many of which noted his masterful translations of the famed fourth- century bishop's works. Now, reading with fresh, keen eyes, Wills applies his unparalleled talents and his superb gifts of analysis and insight to this ambitious and complete translation of Saint Augustine's Confessions. Removed by time and place but not by spiritual relevance, Confessions is one of the most resonant texts in the Western canon, and continues to influence contemporary religion, languages, and thought.

Garry Wills is one of the most respected writers on religion today. He is the author of Saint Augustine’s Childhood, Saint Augustine’s Memory, and Saint Augustine’s Sin, the first three volumes in this series, as well as the Penguin Lives biography Saint Augustine. His other books include "Negro President": Jefferson and the Slave Power, Why I Am a Catholic, Papal Sin, and Lincoln at Gettysburg, which won the Pulitzer Prize.

"[Wills] renders Augustine's famous and influential text in direct language with all the spirited wordplay and poetic strength intact."
-Los Angeles Times

"[Wills's] translations . . . are meant to bring Augustine straight into our own minds; and they succeed. Well-known passages, over which my eyes have often gazed, spring to life again from Wills's pages."
-Peter Brown, The New York Review of Books

"Augustine flourishes in Wills's hand."
-James Wood

"A masterful synthesis of classical philosophy and scriptural erudition."
-Chicago Tribune