Sectarian Song

From its shocking opening sentences, Sectarian Song provides a terrifying first-hand look at life inside a cult, in this instance the infamous Nation of Yahweh. Michael Klein (not the author's real name) joined this offshoot of the Black Hebrew Israelites at the age of eleven, when his mother brought him and his three siblings with her into the group. For two years, until he left at the age of thirteen, Klein suffered abuse at the hands of the zealot cult members, targeted for being a child of mixed race. Even after he escaped, Klein suffered a psychological toll, bouncing between foster homes and psychiatrists, spending years of his life looking over his shoulder, haunted by fear. Despite its grim, often violent early passages, Klein's tale becomes one of hope and faith, an uplifting lesson in the power of the human spirit.