A History of Loneliness
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"The riveting narrative of an honorable Irish priest who finds the church collapsing around him at a pivotal moment in its history. Propelled into the priesthood by a family tragedy, Odran Yates is full of hope and ambition. 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 sees his friends stand trial, colleagues jailed, the lives of young parishioners destroyed, and 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. But when a family event opens wounds from his past, he 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 storytellers of his generation"--
"An honorable priest recalls his life and ultimately confronts his own complicity in the heinous acts of his best friend from the seminary"--
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I read John Boyne's [b:The Heart's Invisible Furies 33630235 The Heart's Invisible Furies John Boyne https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1545283225s/33630235.jpg 51438471] in January this year and it is still, in late December, my book of the year. Now, I have just finished A History of Loneliness and it's clear I have found a new favourite author. You know that feeling when you start reading a book by a writer you love, trust even? That's the overwhelming feeling I had starting this, knowing I was in for something rather special. It's entirely different to the remarkably uplifting Furies, with only some very small glimpses of Boyne's fantastic sense of humour. Overall A History of Loneliness is much, much more tragic. No, more than that. It's an angry book. I felt overwhelming angry by the end of this book. I don't want to say much about how the story develops, and particularly my feelings on, because this book is most certainly a must-read in my eyes. Boyne's decision to tell this story from such a perspective was a master stroke. It's certainly a very pessimistic outlook on not just the country of Ireland, but human beings as a whole, and the complacency that allows evil to thrive. What surprises me, however, is how well Boyne understands humankind; he writes with such incredible insight and, suddenly, such a culture that allows horrific crimes against others, prejudice to difference and the complicity from the individual to the nation to just let this happen all makes sense. Yes, it's beyond tragic and sickening, but it makes sense. Boyne writes characters that are painfully believable. Their flaws are often unforgivable, but bitterly understandable. And yes, this review is very vague, I am purposely trying to give very little away. I'm just so pleased this book ended up being just as powerful as Furies. It shook me to my core.
