Odran Yates enters Clonliffe Seminary in 1972 after his mother informs him that
he has a vocation to the priesthood. He goes in full of ambition and hope, dedic
ated to his studies and keen to make friends. Forty years later, Odran's devotio
n has been challenged by the revelations that have shattered the Irish people's
faith in the church.
He has seen friends stand trial, colleagues jailed, the
lives of young parishioners destroyed and has become nervous of venturing out in
public for fear of disapproving stares and insulting remarks. But when a family
tragedy opens wounds from his past, he is forced to confront the demons that ha
ve raged within a once respected institution and recognise his own complicity in
their propagation. It has taken John Boyne fifteen years and twelve novels to w
rite about his home country of Ireland but he has done so now in his most powerf
ul novel to date, a novel about blind dogma and moral courage, and about the dar
k places where the two can meet.
At once courageous and intensely personal, A
History of Loneliness confirms Boyne as one of the most searching chroniclers o
f his generation.
