Saint Augustine's Childhood

In Garry Wills's biography of Saint Augustine for the Penguin Lives series, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author brilliantly documented the life of the great Christian thinker. His translations of passages of Saint Augustine's influential Confessiones were hailed as "sizzling" (Peter Brown, New York Review of Books). James Wood, writing for the London Review of Books declared, "Augustine flourishes in Wills's hand." Now, Wills has taken on a translation of the first of four books of the Confessiones, "Childhood."

Wills's broad-ranging and incisive discussion of the style, structure, and themes of "Childhood" brings a fresh perspective to this classic work, including the juxtaposition of Augustine's concept of childhood and the learning of language with the ideas of Noam Chomsky and current research. Beautifully designed and translated by "America's greatest living intellectual" (The American Prospect), "Childhood" will be sought after by academics, Christians, and the general reader.

Translated by Garry Wills, author of the bestselling Penguin Lives biography of Saint Augustine.