This true account of a Sudanese giraffe that was captured by Mohammed Alli and delivered to France in 1826 illustrates how two nations' religious, political, and cultural ideologies clashed, despite their mutual adoration for the 12-foot animal known as "Zarafa, the Beautiful Stranger."

Carl Anderson, the Supreme Knight of the Catholic charitable fraternity the Knights of Columbus, writes passionately about how good Catholics, and good people everywhere, must resist what Pope John Paul II described as a "culture of death." For Anderson, the great debate of the 21st century is between those who value all human life--those who understand that we are all children of God--and those who place premiums on money, prestige, and status. From this perspective, Anderson decries untrammeled capitalistic materialism, the war in Iraq, and legalization of abortion. He feels that religious faith and moral charity need to extend to all aspects of modern life, including the economic, social, and political realms, in an effort to build a civilization based on the teachings of Jesus--a civilization of love. Writing with a strong grasp of historical, political, and ideological change, Anderson writes eloquently on a large range of topics: Nazism, communism, civil rights, existentialism, and the many crises of the contemporary world. Throughout, Anderson makes the case that a fundamental belief in the holy value of humanity can cut through the hate and violence of the world.