The Brunist Day of Wrath is Robert Coover's tenth novel. It is a sequel to The Origin of the Brunists, which told the story of Giovanni Bruno, the lone survivor of a mine disaster that killed 97 of his co-workers, and the first several months of the apocalyptic cult that formed around him, ending in their disastrous scattering. The Brunist Day of Wrath is set five years later, as the cult returns to West Condon. Coover had the idea for the sequel while writing The Origin of the Brunists, and has stated that "it might be said that all my writing has been written in Wrath’s shadow." He took notes over the years, but concentrated on his other writings, until the 2000 election of Bush and the power of the religious right in American politics inspired him to take the sequel much more seriously. Excerpts Excerpts have appeared in Conjunctions, Harper's, Western Humanities Review, Kenyon Review, Five Dials, FlashPoint, and Golden Handcuffs Review. White-bread Jesus, Harper's Magazine, 12/2008 Joshua J. Jenkins Meets Jesus Christ, Western Humanities Review, Summer 2013 The Dance of the Annunciation, Kenyon Review, Fall 2013 Cockcrow to High Noon, Golden Handcuffs Review, Fall–Winter 2013–4 Plot summary In the five years since the events of The Origin of the Brunists, the religion has grown, except in West Condon. Justin Miller has left town, taking a job with network TV. Abner Baxter has also left town, openly preaching Brunist. Eleanor Norton has written a successful book on Domiron and the Brunists. The teenage orphan Colin Meredith, after his rescue from the Brunists, was committed to the same mental hospital with Giovanni Bruno. Clara Collins, widow of Ely, has married Ben Wosznik. The mine entrance area, known as the "Mount of Redemption" to the Brunists, has been idle. The Reverend Wesley Edwards' Presbyterian church sold off their long unused camp grounds to local mine boss John P. Suggs, not knowing he was a Brunist sympathizer. Edwards' wife Debra makes Colin's redemption her great project, wrecking her marriage. Colin had seen Bruno being wheeled out of the institute after surgery, and reports he is dead. Prologue On July 7, the Reverend Joshua Jehoshaphat Jenkins, fresh out of Presbyterian seminary, is riding a bus to his first ministerial appointment. Expected to be met by Ted Cavanaugh, the town banker, at the bus station, he finds no one waiting and no message for