I happened upon an old piece of art based upon Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 7, the same passages that serve as the epigraph to my novel and the inspiration for the title. The drawing belongs to Hermannus Hugo’s Pia Desideria (1624).
Here is the epigraph to my novel:
I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
