A History of Loneliness

Many of you may be familiar with author John Boyne's previous works, among them The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, a moving young adult novel about the Holocaust that was made into a film a few years ago. He's prolific, having written nine adult novels and five for young adults. Boyne has expanded his body of work profoundly with his newest adult novel, A History of Loneliness. This one is set in Boyne's native Dublin and spans the period of recent Irish history in which Catholic priests went from revered and sought after, to hated and villified at the peak of the child abuse scandals that swept the country and indeed the world. The story is told through the eyes of Father Odran Yates, who is a humble and well-meaning priest caught up in the whirlwind of scandal, not because of any direct misbehavior on his own part, but by his unknowing ignorance of signs and signals on which he probably should have acted. His torment is palpable, and as a reader I could feel it, and feel his shame and remorse and empathy for the victims. Boyne is a remarkable writer. At no point does he rationalize or excuse the behavior of abusive priests, but he does make some attempt to humanize them. And he pulls no punches in condemning the Church leaders for their habit of ignoring such issues and instead moving priests around, as if they thought the "problem" would go away. It is indeed heartbreaking to consider the number of young lives ruined. But with Boyne's sensitive and beautiful writing, we can now see how innocent, good priests like Odran Yates were also made to suffer for the wrongdoings of their colleagues. Highly recommended.