After being discharged from service in the Second World War, Hazel Motes takes up residence in Taulkinham, Tennessee. Directionless, Motes meets a number of strange locals, and his encounters with them, along with his growing mental instability, lead him to found the Church of God Without Christ in which he preaches his disjointed message about atheism.

Wise Blood was author Flannery O'Connor's first novel and is an important example of Southern Gothic fiction. The Guardian named it one of the top 100 novels of all time in 2003.

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