Wise blood

O'Connor's first novel introduces Hazel Motes, a young soldier who returns from war to a changed Southern landscape. Raised among fiery preaching, he is determined to have nothing to do with sin or salvation, and he begins to preach his own gospel, the Church Without Christ, on city streets. Along the way he meets an eager young admirer, a fake blind preacher and his daughter, and other lost souls.

Dark, comic and unsettling, the book is a story of a man who tries to escape God by denying him. Its odd characters and sharp dialogue established O'Connor's distinctive vision, and it is now regarded as a classic of Southern Gothic fiction.