From Fire, by Water: My Journey to the Catholic Faith

Sohrab Ahmari was a teenager living under the Iranian ayatollahs when he decided that there is no God. Nearly two decades later, he would be received into the Roman Catholic Church.

In From Fire, by Water, he recounts this unlikely passage, from the strident Marxism and atheism of a youth misspent on both sides of the Atlantic to a moral and spiritual awakening prompted by the Mass. At once a young intellectual's finely crafted self-portrait and a life story at the intersection of the great ideas and events of our time, the book marks the debut of a compelling new Catholic voice.

By:   Sohrab Ahmari
Imprint:   Ignatius Press
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 206mm,  Width: 142mm,  Spine: 28mm
Weight:   408g
ISBN:   9781621642022
ISBN 10:   162164202X
Pages:   240
Publication Date:   January 2019
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Sohrab Ahmari is the op-ed editor of the New York Post and a contributing editor of the Catholic Herald. Previously, he served as a columnist and editor with the Wall Street Journal opinion pages in New York and London, and as senior writer at Commentary magazine. His work has also been published in the New York Times, the Times Literary Supplement, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Weekly Standard, First Things, Dissent and America, among many other publications. Ahmari is also the author of The New Philistines: How Identity Politics Disfigure the Arts.

From Fire, By Water is a book that I would place in the hands of any young, over-confident, over-zealous skeptic. It's a book that college-age kids need to read as they flirt, perhaps for the first time, with new ideas that sound avant-garde and rebellious for rebellion's sake, but only end up disappointing. --Andrew Walker, The Public Discourse [A] forthright and well-written spiritual memoir. -- Hannah Niemeier, The New Criterion --Hannah Niemeier, The New Criterion A thought-provoking story . . . a breath of fresh air . . .The author is a gifted wordsmith, ably portraying a variety of colorful scenes and scenarios -- physical and philosophical. --Lela Gilbert, Newsmax If you're going to write a book about your religious conversion it'd better be a great yarn. And if you're going to write a memoir while you're still in your early thirties you'd better be a great writer. In From Fire, by Water Sohrab Ahmari has both boxes checked. . . . Ahmari is a precise and evocative writer, which makes From Fire, by Water easy reading and good reading. --Matthew Hennessey, The University Bookman Remarkable. . . . a book of many virtues, the most unexpected of which is Ahmari's subtle brand of comedy . . . . From Fire, by Water is a spiritual memoir perfectly suited to our time. --Jonathan V. Last, Commentary Magazine Buy Sohrab's superb book for its story of personal faith but also its revelations of life under a farcical theocracy. --Tim Stanley, The Catholic Herald