In a malarial outpost in the South American rain forest two misplaced gringos converge and clash in this novel from the National Book Award-winning author. Martin Quarrier has come to convert the elusive Niaruna Indians to his brand of Christianity. Lewis Moon a stateless mercenary who is himself part Indian has come to kill them on the behalf of the local comandante. Out of this struggle Peter Matthiessen creates an electrifying moral thriller--adapted into a movie starring John Lithgow Kathy Bates and Tom Waits. A novel of Conradian richness At Play in the Fields of the Lord explores both the varieties of spiritual experience and the politics of cultural genocide.