Books: A glimpse behind the cassock

Writer John Boyne.

John Boyne's first novel set in his native Ireland follows four decades in the life of fallible, kind, increasingly betrayed Odran Yates. Chronologically, it begins at a time when mothers demand the film of Mutiny on the Bounty be banned, because it showed glimpses of women's breasts. "Is this a Catholic country, or is it not?"

Indeed it is - at first - and Odran's own domineering mother is convinced he has a calling as a priest. So he trains contentedly enough, spends time in the highly politicised Vatican with its Polish Pope, then passes peaceful years with books, sequestered from the world. The faithful offer him smiles and food wherever he goes.

But slowly, corrosively, he becomes aware of concealment and hypocrisy within his vocation. He concedes first that some individuals within the church are corrupt. Then he realises systems are being manipulated to protect or deny evil men. By the novel's end, the whole fabric of the Catholic Church seems rent and rotten.

So yes, it's a story about priests who sexually abuse: a scenario that's almost a cliche by now. One of Boyne's achievements is to evoke the torment it means for an ineffectual but essentially decent man.

Evil and ugliness swell around him. His own nephew is damaged, by one of Odran's colleagues and friends. Suddenly, his clerical collar means he's the object of insult and assault. He's spat on in a cafe. When he tries to help a lost child, he's accused, beaten, despised. In one jolting scene, he sees a young priest howling in torment inside a church, and comprehends that his life of comfortable faith is wrecked forever.

Finally, in an Archbishop's office with computer terminals and a PA with shaven head, he decides he won't submit any longer. Even then, there are further sundering revelations to endure.

Surging among the decades - 2001, 2006, 1964, 1980 - it's an angry, relentless narrative where the lyrical lilt of Irish speech chimes poignantly all the way through. It's sometimes polemic, sometimes sentimental, but builds into a powerful fusion of passion and compassion.

Boyne, the author of The Boy In Striped Pyjamas, frowns on books written with a movie in mind, so there's a certain irony in the fact that this one also will probably end up on a screen near you.

A History of Loneliness
by John Boyne
(Doubleday $36.99)