• Under the Banner of Heaven

  • A Story of Violent Faith
  • By: Jon Krakauer
  • Narrated by: Scott Brick
  • Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (8,852 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Under the Banner of Heaven  By  cover art

Under the Banner of Heaven

By: Jon Krakauer
Narrated by: Scott Brick
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $17.96

Buy for $17.96

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, this extraordinary work of investigative journalism takes readers inside America’s isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities. • Now an acclaimed FX limited series streaming on HULU.

“Fantastic.... Right up there with In Cold Blood and The Executioner’s Song.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God; some 40,000 people still practice polygamy in these communities.

At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a multi-layered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith. Along the way he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.

©2003 Jon Krakauer (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc., Published by arrangement with Random House Audio Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Scrupulously reported and written with Krakauer’s usual exacting flair, Under the Banner of Heaven is both illuminating and thrilling. It is also the creepiest book anyone has written in a long time—and that’s meant as the highest possible praise.” —Newsweek

“Powerfully illuminating. . . . Almost every section of the book is fascinating in its own right, and together the chapters make a rich picture. . . . An arresting portrait of depravity.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Illuminating . . . provocative. . . . Krakauer is an adept chronicler of extremists [and] the tour guide of choice for secular quests.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

What listeners say about Under the Banner of Heaven

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5,484
  • 4 Stars
    2,249
  • 3 Stars
    786
  • 2 Stars
    181
  • 1 Stars
    152
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4,695
  • 4 Stars
    1,545
  • 3 Stars
    469
  • 2 Stars
    103
  • 1 Stars
    90
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4,490
  • 4 Stars
    1,552
  • 3 Stars
    596
  • 2 Stars
    150
  • 1 Stars
    101

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Good, But I bet the Abridged Version is Better

Usually I'm careful to only choose the unabridged versions of audio books. There's nothing more frustrating than realizing halfway through a good listen that there would be so much more good stuff to listen to if only you'd bought the unabridged. This time the reverse is true. This is a really good book, but the unabridged really needs editing. There were seemingly endless sections with details unnecessary to getting the point across, particularly in chapters that described in mind numbing detail whom is related to whom in what way in particular polygamist communities. But overall, a very interesting account of the origin of the Mormon religion, and the mainstream vs. fundamentalist directions it's taken.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

terrible narration

I love Krakauer's writing but find the narration of this book so irritating that I have to stop listening (and ask for a refund). Scott Brick's unnecessarily animated/actorish/dramatic reading really distracts one from the quality of the writing and story. I've heard Krakauer interviewed and think he'd be a great reader of his own books. I won't get another book narrated by Scott Brick - he is completely lacking in subtlety. Too bad, I was so looking forward to listening to this.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

true crime & true history!

This is the very best way to learn your history lessons: take it with a fascinating story that spawns no end of twists, characterological and otherwise. An extraordinary tale that leaves you no easy place to stand and, like every important story, forces you to examine your own ideas about all the big things, God included.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Couldn't stop listening

I am actually a big fan of the narrator, Scott Brick, so I took a chance at this one. I was captivated from the beginning until the end. I can understand how Mormons would not like this book, but for me, it was wildly informative. I have seen television programs on some of the subject matter and this brought a lot of it together for me.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Intriguing and Incisively Iconoclastic


A razor-edged examination of fanaticism in religion, focused primarily on the Mormon Church and its fundamentalist offshoot sect that continues to adhere to the norms the Church was forced by the federal government to abandon over a century ago: specifically, the practices of polygamy and the marriage of pubescent females.

Concentrating on the true story of the 1980s murders of a woman and her infant daughter, Jon Krakauer immerses the reader in a timeline that appears to establish that the violence of some of today's Mormon fundamentalists can be traced back to the Church's origins after its leaders were banished by Eastern U.S.' post-Victorian society for polygamy and early marriages. Mr. Krakauer's poetic fire seems aimed at: 1) the flimsy nature of the societal line between a man--this seems primarily limited to men--being deemed a lunatic and seen as a religious prophet, when he says, "God told me [to do this] [I must sow my seed] [we must travel West] [I must impregnate your lovely daughter]", and 2) how the Church leaders' nearly-ubiquitous practice, shortly after Joseph Smith's death, of prefacing nearly every decision or action with "God spoke to me" could have precipitated today's fundamentalist leaders' justifying criminal conduct by saying God told him to ignore the laws, and further, might have ultimately contributed to a fringe fanatic, whose black heart overflowed with resentment and revenge, perpetrating homicidal retribution by reading his demoniac thoughts as God's statement of divine will.

A bit overlong, yet overall intriguing and incisively iconoclastic.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Alot of history

I downloaded this book because of the high ratings. It is a very historical book if you are interested in the Morman history. Because of this and the contents I hope that everything depicted in this book is accurate. If it is it really puts the Morman religon in a very unfavorable light. I am Lutheran and have never given much thought to Mormans accept that I have work related friends that live in Salt Lake City that are Morman and I really like them. This book follows the religion from the start to present day and also deals mostly with the multiply marriage theory that some mormans go by. It is a long book that at the last 2 hours I have to listen to I am ready to put down and go to my next book. Just a really lot of history and facts that I hope have been verified. If you like this sort of thing you will enjoy.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Under the Banner of Heaven

This is the most disturbing book I have read in a very long time.
When Elizabeth Smart was found and the circumstances of her capture revealed, I was not surprised at all. Any child brought up under her conditions would probably have capitulated just as she did.
The Mormon faith is not a religion...it is a cult...fundamentalist and main stream Mormonism both. So, the next time those "nice" Mormon boys come to my door, I am prepared.
To think this is the fastest growing cult in the world is indeed frightening.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyed; not for Mormons or Fans of the Church

Thoroughly enjoyed the detailed history of the LDS Church, and it's parallels to the Lafferty Bros murders. Can seem disjointed, the way Kraukauer switched back and forth between the 1800s and the 80's, but makes interesting comparisons between historical events. The book comes off as vicously anti-Mormon though. Would have preferred a more fair and balanced tone.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Awesome book..... though pure lunacy

This book drives a couple of key points home for me. First, anyone who professes to have a direct communication line to God should be locked up. Second, steer clear of anyone in the 21st century who thinks the earth is 6,000 years old. Other than that, the book is extremely well written and researched. I had know idea how violent, racist and outright perverted the founders of the LDS church were. All in the name of Jesus? Yeah right.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

What a terriffic book!!!

This book is not at all what I had expected - it's much, much better. While the basis of the story is the murder of Brenda Lafferty and her baby, the author also takes us back in time to the founding of the Mormon church. At first, you wonder about the significance of events from the early 19th century - plural marriage, blood atonement, the fire and fervor of Joseph Smith - to two murders in the late 20th century. Krakauer, amazingly, ties everything together, in such a compelling manner that I couldn't put my iPod down until I finished.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful