Be Near Me (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780156033961)

"Always trust a stranger," said David's mother when he returned from Rome. "It's the people you know who let you down."

Half a life later, David is Father Anderton, a Catholic priest with a small parish in Scotland. He befriends Mark and Lisa, rebellious local teenagers who live in a world he barely understands. Their company stirs memories of earlier happiness--his days at a Catholic school in Yorkshire, the student revolt in 1960s Oxford, and a choice he once made in the orange groves of Rome. But their friendship also ignites the suspicions and smoldering hatred of a town that resents strangers, and brings Father David to a reckoning with the gathered tensions of past and present. In this masterfully written novel, Andrew O'Hagan explores the emotional and moral contradictions of religious life in a faithless age.

Author: Andrew O'Hagan
ISBN-10: 0156033968
ISBN-13: 9780156033961
Publisher: Mariner Books
Language: English
Published: 04/14/2008
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.64lbs
Size: 8.04h x 5.74w x 0.77d

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 06/08/2008 pg. 28
Commonweal 06/20/2008 pg. 26