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.
