What I Believe is a fervent act of self-examination from a preeminent literary figure of the twentieth century. François Mauriac conducts a spiritual survey that is at once both deeply personal and inescapably universal. Perhaps more so than any of his other works, What I Believe offers common ground for Christians and nonbelievers alike, as his revelation of belief and doubt stands as an invitation to approach the Christian mystery with an open mind. Of particular interest, from a literary standpoint, is the chapter on “Purity,” which sheds light on much of Mauriac’s acclaimed and complicated fiction. An engrossing introspection, What I Believe, to quote from the Translator’s Introduction, “does honor first to Mauriac himself, in the vibrant insistency with which he speaks, and it does honor also to those for whom the book was written.”