Raised in Judaism, he lived most of his life as an agnostic before converting to Christianity. “When I started wrestling with faith I was afraid it would make me unrealistic, that I would have this rosy, silly, magical view of life,” Klavan says. “Instead, it enhanced my sense of reality, my sense of human motives, my sense of what was happening in the world.”
A quest for truth also plays a key role in Andrew’s latest novel, The Truth of the Matter. While his character Charlie West is not autobiographical, a strong Christian faith is not the only thing Andrew has in common with the hero of his series: Both have black belts in karate (a skill that makes Charlie’s escapes a little more plausible) and both are fervent patriots.
“I lived overseas for seven years,” Andrew explains, “and I came back realizing that America is special. We’re a nation based on an idea—the idea that all men are created equal, that our rights come from our Creator, not our government, that our rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, among others. I came back a patriot, not to this particular piece of earth, not to the specialness of us as human beings, but to that idea.”—Katie Hart