O Sinners!

A young journalist, reeling from loss, investigates a mysterious cult in the California redwoods, only to be drawn in by its charismatic leader in this addictive novel that asks why people give up control and what it takes, ultimately, to find one’s place in the world.

＂O Sinners! invites us to be fully and vigorously present for the rhapsodic truths of our lives.＂ --Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning

Faruq Zaidi, a young journalist processing the recent death of his father, a devout Muslim, takes the opportunity to embed himself in a cult called ＂the nameless.＂ Based in the California redwoods and shepherded by an enigmatic Vietnam War veteran named Odo, the nameless adhere to the 18 Utterances, including teachings such as ＂all suffering is distortion＂ and ＂see only beauty.＂ Faruq, skeptical but committed to unraveling the mystery of the nameless, extends his stay over months, as he gets deeper into the cult’s inner workings and alluring teachings. But as he gets closer to Odo, Faruq himself begins to unravel, forced to come to terms with the memories he has been running from while trying to resist Odo’s spell.

Told in three seamlessly interwoven threads―Faruq’s present-day investigation, Odo’s time as an infantryman during the Vietnam War alongside three other Black soldiers before the formation of the movement, and a documentary script that recounts the nameless’s clash with a Texas fundamentalist church―O Sinners! examines both longing and belonging. Ultimately the novel asks: What is it that we seek from the people we admire and, inevitably, from one another?

Nicole Cuffy is a D.C.-based writer with a BA from Columbia University and an MFA from The New School. She is a lecturer at the University of Maryland and American University. Her work can be found in Mason’s Road, The Master’s Review Volume VI (curated by Roxane Gay), Chautauqua, and Blue Mesa Review, and her chapbook, Atlas of the Body, won the Chautauqua Janus Prize and was a finalist for the Black River Chapbook Competition.