From the mountain where Noah's ark landed to the site of the legendary burning bush, a ten-thousand-mile journey across the Middle East goes in search of the roots of the Bible to discover whether it was an abstraction or a living, breathing entity. Reprint. An unpretentious account of a hike around the Holy Land with the author, who describes himself as a not very devout American Jew, and his delightful, knowledgeable guide, an Israeli archeologist named Avner Goren. The pair started at Mt. Ararat, in Turkey, and ended on Mt. Nebo, in Jordan, where Moses died. They followed the patriarchs' trails, visited Egypt, and struggled across the Sinai Desert. Mt. Sinai, Feiler reminds us, is where Moses received the Ten Commandments, God's first written communication, at around the same time as the alphabet, a recent Semitic invention, was gaining acceptance. But history and archeology are not the point of this book, or of the Bible. All the people Feiler encountered––Christians, Jews, Muslims, unbelievers, pilgrims, locals––felt that the Bible spoke to them about their own lives. Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker An eloquently spiritual pilgrimage. -- Entertainment Weekly An enthusiastic travelogue Feiler delivers a wealth of information in an accessible and entertaining format. -- New York Times Book Review An inspirational oasis From the barren land, Feiler emerges, like those whose paths he traces, renewed and transformed. -- People An instant classic A pure joy to read. -- Washington Post Book World Bruce Feiler went looking for proof. He learned that proof doesn't matter. -- USA Today Evocative, descriptive, emotionally honest, and often funny. -- Christian Science Monitor Feiler's accomplishment, and it's a profound one, is to confront his idea of God... -- San Francisco Chronicle Feiler, not unlike Mark Twain, brings a sharp sense of humor to the whole endeavor. -- Los Angeles Times This book belongs on the shelves next to the classics. -- Publishers Weekly (*starred review) [Feiler] is an excellent guide...He has...invested [this book] with a keen intellectual curiosity. -- New York Times Bruce Feiler is the New York Times bestselling author of Walking the Bible, Learning to Bow, Looking for Class, and Under the Big Top. A frequent contributor to NPR's All Things Considered, and contributing editor for Gourmet he writes regularly about American music for The New York Times, The New Yorker, and other publications, and recieved international acclaim for his influential cover story in The New Republic, "Gone Country." A native of Savannah, Georgia, Mr. Feiler is a graduate of Yale and Cambridge Universities, and now divides his time between Nashville and New York.