Under the Banner of Heaven cover art

Under the Banner of Heaven

A Story of Violent Faith

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Under the Banner of Heaven

By: Jon Krakauer
Narrated by: Scott Brick
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Now a major new series on Disney+ starring Andrew Garfield

Brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty insist they were commanded to kill by God. In Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer's investigation is a meticulously researched, bone-chilling narrative of polygamy, savage violence and unyielding faith: an incisive look inside isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities in America, this gripping work of non-fiction illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behaviour.

©2022 Jon Krakauer (P)2022 Penguin Random House LLC Christianity Murder Religious Studies True Crime Mormon

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Prophet's Prey cover art
The Witness Wore Red cover art
Eiger Dreams cover art
Classic Krakauer cover art
Into the Wild cover art
Pastwatch cover art
Road to Jonestown cover art
Secrets and Wives cover art
Abandoned Prayers cover art
When the Moon Turns to Blood cover art
Waco cover art
Dune cover art
The Woman Who Fooled the World cover art
In Cold Blood cover art
Animal House cover art
Big Love cover art

Critic reviews

"Excellent...a lucid, judicious, even sympathetic account not just of Mormon Fundamentalism but of the seductive power of fanaticism in general." (Daily Telegraph)

"Remarkable...for anyone interested in the wilder frontiers of spiritual conviction, this book is a must." (Independent)

"A provocative look at the twisted roots of American fundamentalism." (Will Self, Evening Standard Books of the Year)
All stars
Most relevant  
As this book was published in 2003 there are some aspects that are out of date. So if you're looking for current FLDS discussion this is not the book for you.
However, if you want to understand a warts and all history of Mormonism and why fundamentalist groups have proliferated this is a fantastic book and well worth your time.

An excellent history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Listened to this after watching the excellent drama series. There is quite a lot about the history of the Mormon faith. The story of the murder and the capture of the fugitives was a lot less dramatic in reality than in the TVseries, which I guess is to be expected. I would have liked a more in depth exploration of the Lafferty family. At the end Krakauer states that he has a lot of respect for the LDS. I find that hard as the history he gives us shows that the faith has its origins in misogyny and terrible violence, and this legacy lead to a truly awful murder. He is a good writer, and I enjoyed this, one although I think if I read it as a physical book I would have given up, as the story lagged in the middle. I liked the readers relaxed manner

Well read, not quite what I expected

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I have to agree with another review on this platform, that I too struggled to finish this book. It is indeed easy to loose sight of the murder that begins it. Never a fan of zealot dogma of any variety, the content is disturbing. Yet it is also edifying in illuminating not only the nature of Mormon religious culture but the distinctive and alarming ways that America shapes it's own concept of God. And how that 'American God's shapes American culture.

An interesting, if difficult, read/listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really struggled to get through this book I think due to the narration. I really enjoyed Jon Krakauer’s other books but I couldn’t stay focused on this book so found myself lost on several occasions. I was on chapter 14 before I remembered the beginning of this book started with a murder. I think the contents was quite interesting, albeit a lengthy run down of Mormon history but the narration is too American for me.

I really struggled to get through this book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Thoroughly captivating listen. The title caught my eye and once I started. I couldn’t stop listening.

Fascinating story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very detailed and very well read. Minor criticism is that it so7nds that Audible have 'copied' this from a CD book series. This means every so often 'this book continues on disc 3.......disc 3......🙈

Fascinating Insight Into The Mormon Religion

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An exhaustively researched exposé of the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints which attempts to explain, even justify, the callous murder of Brenda and her 15 month old daughter by two brothers of the Lafferty family.
Complicit in this were the rest of the Lafferty family members, not least their very own mother who had full knowledge of the brother's plan, as did the, so called, School of Prophets members.
Only in America, thank goodness, could such a, literally, misguided group be born and proliferate in such vast numbers.
Beware, The Mormon Church is spreading across the world in search of ever more converts to sign up for their version of The Truth.

Only in America

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
frustrating that this has been copied from CD (every so often the narration is interrupted by "continues on disk...")

Very detailed review of the history of the religion, and sometimes the events get lost in that history. But a very interesting novel

detailed history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
this was fascinating to listen to and clearly the author has done a lot of research. there is quite a lot of disturbing material in the book but I feel that it is not gratuitous in its presentation and is necessary to drive home some of the authors points.

the only criticism I would make is that, at times, I felt the book lacked structure. the book opens with a double homicide and it is clear that the author is attempting to find the reason behind the crime, however the past towards the answer jumps about in history a lot and I found myself thinking - what does this have to do with the original crime? having said that, I didn't mind hearing the story of how the church was founded and how it's doctrines evolved over time... It is all interesting

interesting and disturbing, very well researched

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A very lucid history of Mormonism and the fundamentalist breakaway sect. Sometimes a bit repetitive with perhaps too much detail about certain incidents but overall an excellent listen

Fascinating story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews