The Oracle’s Daughter with Harrison Hill

Author Harrison Hill will be talking to GM Andi about his new book in the store!

About the Book:

A gripping chronicle of the rise and fall of a woman-led cult—and the enduring allure of extremism across America’s turbulent religious history.

On a cool fall night in 1999, twenty-six-year-old Sarah Green crept out of her house, retrieved a backpack from its hiding place, and ran for her life. She was escaping not just the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps, a paramilitary religious cult operating out of the New Mexico desert, but also the punishments and cruelty of the cult’s leader—her mother, Deborah.

In The Oracle’s Daughter, Harrison Hill traces the fascinating beginnings and violent end of ACMTC, from its early days as an outgrowth of the 1960s counterculture to its descent into conspiracy-fueled abuse. This is the story of three women—Deborah, the group’s founder and self-proclaimed oracle; Maura, one of its first members; and Sarah, Deborah’s daughter—bound together by a punitive, baroque set of radical beliefs and practices, including exorcism, kidnapping, and the horrific mistreatment of those who fell out of the leaders’ favor.

As dramatic as it is deeply researched, The Oracle’s Daughter traces the long, strange history of America’s religious life, illuminating the porous boundary between the fringe and the mainstream—and showing how much more vulnerable we are to extremism than we might like to think.

About the Author:

Harrison Hill grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia and lives in Brooklyn, New York. He received his MFA in nonfiction from Columbia University, where he also taught undergraduate writing. His journalism and essays have appeared in The Cut, GQ, Vogue, Travel + Leisure, AFAR, The Guardian, and The Threepenny Review. The Oracle’s Daughter is his first book.

About the Moderator:
Andi escaped the corporate world and found her dream job of managing an indie bookstore in 2018. She’s born and raised in RVA and reads just about anything, with particular favorites being Twisteries, YA, horror, and most any contemporary fiction. When she’s not reading she can be found playing pinball and relaxing with her husband, her cats, and a nice cold local beer in her speakeasy home.