Easter

Michael Arditti's magnificent novel is both a devastating portrait of today's Church of England and an audacious reworking of the central myth of Western culture.

Taking the form of a traditional triptych, it is at once intimate and epic, lyrical and analytic.

Shocking events unfold against a backdrop of meticulously observed religious services.

High Church ritual, evangelical revivalism and the ancestor-worship of the English gentry are all subjected to merciless scrutiny.