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The Office of Innocence
by Keneally, Thomas
- Used
- first
- Condition
- Fine, 1st edition, d/j in protective sleeve.
- ISBN 10
- 0340624736
- ISBN 13
- 9780340624739
- Seller
-
Maidenhead, Berkshire, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London: Sceptre, 2002. 1st. h/b. Fine, 1st edition, d/j in protective sleeve.. 8vo (230 x 150 / 9"" x 6""). Sydney, 1942, and in a nation threatened by a Japanese invasion, with husbands absent and sleek GIs present, a spirit of recklessness takes hold. Frank Darragh, an innocent young curate, finds the line between saving others' souls and losing his own begins to blur as he beomes entangled with a menage a trois and dangerously attracted to a married woman whose husband is a POW, who confesses that she has been tempted by a charismatic American sergeant. Before Father Darragh can dissuade her, she is murdered. Suspecting the sergeant, yet believing he might save his soul, Darragh gets drawn ever further into a morass his complacent superiors deplore and towards a showdown that could cost him his life.
Synopsis
Thomas Keneally is a writer of extraordinary range: from Schindler's List to The Great Shame his storytelling has engaged millions of readers. Now, after a brief departure into non-fiction, he is back with a novel as timely as it is enduring.On the outskirts of Sydney, Father Frank Darragh is embarking on his new life of priesthood just as war erupts in the Pacific theater. American GIs pour into Father Darragh's neighborhood, and with them comes a reminder of the atrocities abounding nearby. Determined to shun hypocrisy, the earnest priest finds himself constantly at odds with his superiors, who frown on his efforts to rescue an errant black soldier and pay deathbed visits to the wayward. But Frank Darragh persists, becoming his parish's most popular confessor, particularly among wives of Australian servicemen who confront an array of temptations while their husbands are away. One such parishioner, Kate Heggarty, turns the tables of temptation on young Darragh, challenging his spiritual beliefs and stirring a vulnerable place in his heart. When Kate is found murdered, his anguish is only compounded by accusations that he caused her death. Poignantly depicting the conflicts between the secular and the holy, and between the family of Darragh's birth and the brotherhood of priests, OFFICE OF INNOCENCE is a tale set in the most compelling of circumstances. Drawing on his own experience studying for the priesthood in his youth, Thomas Keneally has created an endearing protagonist who speaks to the conundrums of our age while paying tribute to quiet heroes of the past. "In the style of the best historians, [Keneally] allows the intrinsic power of the tales he tells and the people who populate his pages to draw the reader into a fully elaborated universe."-The New York TimesFrom the Hardcover edition.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Inklings & Yarnspinners
(GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- IYC133159
- Title
- The Office of Innocence
- Author
- Keneally, Thomas
- Format/Binding
- H/b
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine, 1st edition, d/j in protective sleeve.
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- 1st
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0340624736
- ISBN 13
- 9780340624739
- Publisher
- Sceptre
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 2002
- Pages
- 336
- Size
- 8vo (230 x 150 / 9"" x 6"")
- Keywords
- 1st, fiction, historical fiction, Keneally
- Bookseller catalogs
- 2nd-hand books;
- X weight
- 0.67 g
Terms of Sale
Inklings & Yarnspinners
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Inklings & Yarnspinners
Biblio member since 2021
Maidenhead, Berkshire
About Inklings & Yarnspinners
INKLINGS & YARNSPINNERSA new online bookshop forFIRST & SIGNED EDITIONS, RARE BOOKSA particular focus on:- The Oxford Inklings with their Friends & Influences (C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Barfield, Williams, Chesterton, Macdonald, Sayers, etc)- Great 20th Century Novelists (e.g. Graham Greene & John le Carré; Anthony Powell & Evelyn Waugh; P. D. James etc)- Great 20th Century Poets (e.g. T. S. Eliot, John Masefield, Walter de la Mare, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Stevie Smith, W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, Dylan Thomas, etc)- Christian Theology (e.g. from library sales)
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- Fine
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