Publisher's Synopsis
Now Back in Print with an Introduction by Ann Patchett
Jeanette Haien's award-winning novel relates the seemingly simple tale of a parishioner confiding in her priest--revelations that provoke a moral quandary for not only the clergyman, but the reader as well
Jeannette Haien's exquisite first novel is a deceptively simple story of secret lives that has the power and resonance of myth. On a rainy morning Father Declan de Loughry stands fishing in an Irish salmon stream, pondering the recent deathbed condesson of one of his parishioners. Keven Dennehy and his wife, Enfa, have been sweetly living a lie for some fifty years, a lie the full extent of which Father Declan learns only when Enda finally confides "the all of it." Her tale of suffering mesmerizes the priest, who recognizes that it is also a tale of sin and scandal, a transgression he cannot ignore. The resolution of his dilemma is a triumph of strength and empathy that makes The All of It a novel that stands to test of time and deserves to discovered by each generation.
