The Exalted Company of Roadside Martyrs

The Exalted Company of Roadside Martyrs is an exhilarating and challenging examination of official and unofficial authority and what happens when they collide. Characters and settings crackle with the reality of their precise portrayal. These stories are about flawed people in positions of authority and equally-flawed characters who challenge that authority. Concerned respectively with church and state, they show the ways institutions (and their ministers) deal with and try to control the beliefs of the people. Warren Cariou explores the tension between perception and what might be called 'intellectual reason.' He is humorous while always being thoughtful, and his descriptive power is exceptional. He is one of the very best young writers of our time.-Alistair MacLeod