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Product Description
It is 1945, and in a rural Irish village called Creevagh, a young man waits eagerly for the mail, convinced that one letter will bring his salvation. Since the age of reason, Phelim O'Brien has been obsessed by a morbid fear of hell; and from the age of puberty, tormented by the certainty he'll wind up there. But his friend, Philpot Emmett, refuses to accept that the slightest tittle of carnal pleasure is a mortal sin, and where Phelim struggles, Philpot happily yields. Father Coyne admonishes, Catherine Ryan tempts, and the formidable Maura Higgins rebels against them all, vanguard of the encroaching modern values that are slowly changing the face of village life. This is an this endearing and sweetly funny first novel, by an engaging and talented new writer.
Amazon.com Review
He wasn't the first Irish boy to hit upon the idea that entering the priesthood would save him from his carnal desire. Philem O'Brien has everything going for him--he's a football player, handsome, in love--except for the one little problem of Catholic hell, a locus for which he felt he was most certainly headed. Love is not the only hell on earth that Philem encounters: family feuds, illiteracy, classism, and racial hatred envelope his small hometown in Ireland after World War II, and the love of his life, Catherine McGrath, refuses to believe that Philem will ultimately choose the church over her charms. Witty, charismatic, and filled with wonderful dialogue, Walter Keady's novel is a delight as well as an insightful exploration of human yearnings.
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