‘An urgently compelling story
of power, corruption, lies and self-deceits, the damage that happens when we
turn our eyes from wrong. Anyone who wants to know what happened in the Irish
Catholic Church needs to read this brave, righteously angry and stunning book.
Some of us have long wondered what it would be like if a master storyteller
turned his powers to this theme. Now we know.’ —Joseph O’Connor
It has taken John Boyne fifteen years and
twelve novels to write about his home country of Ireland but he has done so now
in his most powerful novel to date, a novel about blind dogma and moral
courage, and about the dark places where the two can meet.
Propelled into the priesthood by a family
tragedy, Odran Yates is full of hope and ambition, believing he has a calling.
When he arrives at Clonliffe Seminary in the
1970s, it is a time in Ireland when priests are highly respected, and Odran
believes that he is pledging his life to “the good.”
Forty years later, Odran’s devotion is caught
in revelations that shatter the Irish people’s faith in the Catholic Church. He
grows nervous of venturing out in public for fear of disapproving stares and
insults. At one point, he is even arrested when he takes the hand of a young
boy and leads him out of a department store looking for the boy’s mother.
When a colleague stands trial for heinous
crimes, Odran is forced to confront the demons that have raged within the
church, and to recognize his own complicity in their propagation, within both
the institution and his own family.
A novel as intimate as it is universal, A
History of Loneliness is about the stories we tell ourselves to make
peace with our lives. It confirms Boyne as one of the most searching
chroniclers of his generation.
About the author:
John Boyne was born in Ireland in 1971. He is
the author of eight novels for adults and four for younger readers, including
the international bestseller The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which was
made into a Miramax feature film and has sold more than five million copies
worldwide. His novels are published in over forty-five languages. He is married
and lives in Dublin.
A History of Loneliness
by John Boyne
RRP: $36.99
Released: 12 Sept 2014
Imprint: Doubleday
Trade Paperback
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