HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...
MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
8588124,930 (3.98)27
Fiction. Literature. HTML:"[Haigh is] an expertnatural storyteller with an acute sense of her characters' humanity." —NewYork Times

"We have the intriguing possibility that the nextgreat American author is already in print." —Fort Worth Star-Telegram

When Sheila McGann setsout to redeem her disgraced brother, a once-beloved Catholic priest in suburbanBoston, her quest will force her to confront cataclysmic truths about herfractured Irish-American family, her beliefs, and, ultimately, herself.Award-winning author Jennifer Haigh follows hercritically acclaimed novels Mrs. Kimbleand The Condition with a captivating,vividly rendered portrait of fraying family ties, and the trials of belief anddevotion, in Faith.
.
… (more)
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 27 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 80 (next | show all)
Story is written by Sheila McGann, step-sister to Arthur Breen. Art is a priest accused of molesting a boy by his mother. It turns out that it is a lie and she only wants the money. It follows Art?s family in their search for the truth and their reconciliation with their own situations. A good read.
  bentstoker | Jan 26, 2024 |
It took me a while to get into this, and not being a Catholic meant I didn’t really grasp the depth of the families’ problems. I was a bit confused at times as to whether it was meant to be read from the viewpoint of the sister, or objectively, because at one point the author writes in the first person.
I nearly gave up, but somehow the novel and the family grew on me and I was disappointed when I cam to the last page. Worth a read ( )
  kjuliff | Jan 17, 2023 |
Jennifer Haigh's novel, FAITH (2011), is just one of those rare "wow" reads, the kind of book that's hard to put down, and I read it in just a few sittings. The setting is the Irish neighborhoods of greater Boston in 2001-2002, at the height of the clerical sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic archdiocese there. Although the disgraced Cardinal Law is never mentioned by name, he's in there. The central figure is Arthur Breen, a veteran priest accused of sexual misconduct, although the story is told by his younger half-sister, Sheila McGann. And it is a complex, convoluted tale of widows, missing fathers, alcoholism, drug addiction, devout faith, dysfunctional families and fallen away Catholics. I remember reading about it all in the papers as it was happening, and also about the much wider scandals within the Church over ensuing years, as well as the award-winning film, SPOTLIGHT (which I have not yet seen), about the Boston Globe's coverage of it all which came out a dozen or so years later.

Father Art Breen's story is a kind of microcosmic look at this wider problem within the Church, and one which affords us an intimate look into the training of priests, as well as the loneliness of the unnatural celibate life of priests. (I spent a year at a minor seminary and recognized the descriptions of the rues, regimens and routines followed at such places.) But Father Breen's story has its own particular heartaches, sadness and surprises, which I do not wish to reveal here. And the other characters - his own family members (especially the narrator), as well as a young single mom - are richly developed, with detailed backstories of their own, all of which converge in an unexpected and heartbreaking conclusion and denouement. Trust me, FAITH is simply storytelling at its best, and I fully intend to read more from this wonderful, gifted writer, Jennifer Haigh. My very highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, REED CITY BOY ( )
  TimBazzett | Mar 10, 2022 |
The character development in this book was fantastic. The entire book flowed in a very measured way that never lost my attention. In a way, I suppose it was hypnotic, for lack of a better word. The story will haunt me.

I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway. ( )
  Tosta | Jul 5, 2021 |
A sensitive novel of one family's experience of the Catholic priest sex abuse scandal. Surprisingly tender and thoughtful. ( )
  phyllis.shepherd | Apr 7, 2021 |
Showing 1-5 of 80 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
It's a fight you'll never win
And now you bow your head in shame
For a sin no one forgives

-- Dropkick Murphys, "This Is Your Life"

He lives for God, who lives by the Rule. -- St. Benedict
Dedication
For Jimmy, my first friend
First words
Here is a story my mother has never told me.
Quotations
Love to marriage to home and family: connect those dots, and you get the approximate shape of most people's lives. Take them away, and you lose any hope for connection. You give up your place in the world.
In his view, no eight-year-old has mastered the cheap ruses of adulthood. When kids lie, they don't want to be believed; their deepest wish is to be known and understood. For my brother this is a point of faith; a child will tell the truth if he feels safe and accepted. All you have to do is gain his trust.
It was a thing I had always known but until recently had forgotten: that faith is a decision. In its most basic form, it is a choice.
As always, her worries seemed larger at night. It happens to us all, Father Art had once told her. The dark night of the soul.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

Fiction. Literature. HTML:"[Haigh is] an expertnatural storyteller with an acute sense of her characters' humanity." —NewYork Times

"We have the intriguing possibility that the nextgreat American author is already in print." —Fort Worth Star-Telegram

When Sheila McGann setsout to redeem her disgraced brother, a once-beloved Catholic priest in suburbanBoston, her quest will force her to confront cataclysmic truths about herfractured Irish-American family, her beliefs, and, ultimately, herself.Award-winning author Jennifer Haigh follows hercritically acclaimed novels Mrs. Kimbleand The Condition with a captivating,vividly rendered portrait of fraying family ties, and the trials of belief anddevotion, in Faith.
.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Your brother is the popular, dynamic pastor of a large suburban parish. He finds himself at the centre of a very public scandal, and he refuses to defend himself. You believe he is innocent; but your younger brother believes he is guilty.

Could you keep the faith?
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.98)
0.5
1 4
1.5 2
2 8
2.5 4
3 34
3.5 27
4 141
4.5 30
5 66

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 202,661,518 books! | Top bar: Always visible