Crimes Of The Father

Keneally wryly describes himself as a ‘delicatessen Catholic’ but, as a former seminarian, he’s able to write about the shortcomings of his Church with sympathy as well as outrage. In other hands, the story of a Catholic priest returning from Canada to Australia in 1996 to confront the scandal of child abuse committed by a highly placed monsignor and covered up by his colleagues, could have been the basis for a shabby shocker of a novel. But what shines through the book, and explains why Keneally towers over most of his contemporaries, is its compassion. Max Davidson