The Man Who Was Thursday

Perhaps best-known for his "Father Brown" detective series, G. K. Chesterton was renowned for his wit, rhetorical brilliance, and talent for ingenious paradox. Those qualities fill this funny, fast-paced novel about a club of anarchists in turn-of-the-20th-century London. Ostensibly a story of mystery and espionage, it's also functions as a vehicle for social, religious, and philosophical commentary.