'STUNNING, REFRESHING AND ORIGINAL.' — JULIA BAIRD Koby Abberton emerges like a shark on to the sand at Maroubra Beach. Tattooed from shoulder to shoulder, his body bares letters like teeth: 'My brothers keeper'. In this surprising and revelatory history of the Bible in Australia, Meredith Lake gets under the skin of a text that's been read, wrestled with, preached and tattooed, and believed to be everything from a resented imposition to the very Word of God. The Bible in Australia explores how in the hands of Bible-bashers, immigrants, suffragists, evangelists, unionists, writers, artists and Indigenous Australians, the Bible has played a contested but defining role in this country.

Meredith Lake is a historian, broadcaster and award-winning writer, with a PhD from the University of Sydney. She is the host of Soul Search on ABC Radio National and her other books include The Bible Down Under and Faith in Action: Hammond Care. She is an Honorary Associate of the Department of History, Sydney University.