A THOUSAND LIVES coming October 11, 2011 from Free Press “In the aptly titled A Thousand Lives, Julia Scheeres captures the humanity within this terrible story, vividly depicting individuals trapped in a vortex of hope and fear, faith and loss of faith, not to mention the changes sweeping America in the 1960s and ‘70s... Drawing on a mountain of sources compiled and recently released by the FBI, she changes forever the way we think about this dark chapter of our history.” —T.J. Stiles, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt “For those who can picture only the gory end of Jonestown, Julia Scheeres offers a heartbreaking and often inspiring glimpse of what might have been. Her masterfully told and exhaustively researched A Thousand Lives should stand not only as the definitive word on Jones’ horrific machinations, but on the utopian dreams of a bygone generation. A worthy follow-up to her superb memoir, Jesus Land.” —Tom Barbash, author of On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, and 9/11: A Story of Loss and Renewal
9781416596394 • $26.00 • Hardcover 9781451628968 • $12.99 • eBook
“The definitive book on Jonestown and the Danse Macabre of suicide and murder orchestrated by mad Jim Jones. Julia Sheeres takes us by the hand and leads us gently, inexorably, into the darkness.” —Tim Cahill, author of Lost in My Own Backyard
“I thought I knew the story of Jonestown, but in reading A Thousand Lives discovered that much of what I’d read and heard was pure myth. Through meticulous research, beautiful writing and great compassion, Scheeres presents an engrossing account of how Jim Jones’ followers—eager parishioners who yearned for a more purposeful life and were willing to work for it—found themselves trapped in a nightmare of unfathomable proportions. This book serves as testimony to the seductiveness of religious fervor, and how in the wrong hands it can be used to nefarious ends. It is also a poignant and unforgettable tribute to those who lost their lives and to those few who survived.” —Allison Hoover Bartlett, author of The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession
“This the best book in a good long time on the dangers of fanatical faith, the power of group belief and lure of deep certainties. These demons that haunt the human mind can only be countered by facing them with courage and honesty – this is precisely what Sheeres has done.” —Ethan Watters, author of Crazy Like Us
Bookseller praise “A Thousand Lives is a book of quality that tells a sad, sad tale. Scheeres does a masterful job. It actually kept me awake at night with feelings of distress that Jonestown actually happened and some versions of this kind of cult attraction still exist today.” —Sheryl Cotleur, Book Passage, Corte Madera, California “]A Thousand Lives] is a timely and accomplished book, and a very powerful one. . . I won’t be surprised if it’s a huge hit… My wife asked me the other night what the best book I’d read this month and I told her that it was A Thousand Lives.” —Ben McNally, McNally Books, Toronto “Ms. Scheeres’s new book is a journalistic history of the first order, one that. . . articulates, with excruciating clarity, the exact moral and political chaos of San Francisco in the 1970s.” —Camden Avery, The Booksmith, San Francisco “Jim Jones, Jonestown and drinking the Kool-Aid have become part of the general lexicon but the story . . .is much more complex. Accessing the massive FBI files, Julia Scheeres creates a probing account of the rise of Jones and the events that led to the horror in Guyana, providing a human element to unspeakable events.” —Bill Cusumano, Nicola’s Books, Ann Arbor, Michigan
“[A Thousand Lives] is a combination of careful research and sensitive writing, is a sad, harrowing read, for sure. Still, it is gripping and important. . . Scheeres’s unflinching look at horror is related with great compassion. A Thousand Lives helps us to understand how such an unthinkable tragedy could have occurred.” —Christopher Rose, Andover Bookstore, Massachusetts “This is a terrifying book, and you need to read it. . .To realize that a series of small steps can produce such a horrific outcome is more terrifying than any Hollywood horror story could ever hope to be. . . I didn’t want to keep reading, and yet I felt I must. We owe it to the survivors to bear witness to this horror, and to learn to keep watch to make sure that we, or our loved ones, are never fooled by the next Jim Jones.” —Sarah Langlais, Kepler’s Books, Menlo Park, California “I found the book compelling, in that it gives the reader an opportunity to see how intelligent people can be manipulated. The book gives us and insight into the mind of Jim Jones and. . . and the author allows us to see that this mass suicide was not a spontaneous act, but rather a well thought out and seamlessly executed act. I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to understand what drives people to leaders such as Jim Jones. —Bob Angell, Spring Street Books, Newport, RI “Most readers will be familiar with the terrible mass suicide in Jonestown in 1978, but Scheeres shows us another side of the tragedy, the stories of a few of the survivors. Julia Scheeres writes with compassion and without judgment while relating the very personal reasons people had for joining Jones’ church, and how little by little the charismatic Jones got his followers under his control. A Thousand Lives is an eye-opening read, and highly recommended.” —Sherri Gallentine, Vromans Bookstore, Pasadena, CA