The Bishop's Man
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: February 7, 2017 9:05 PM | Last Updated: July 12, 2017
Linden MacIntyre
Father Duncan MacAskill is known as a fixer. He has made a name for himself by smoothing over potential scandals in the Catholic Church, but at the cost of troubling his conscience. He moves to a parish in Cape Breton to keep a low profile, but instead is faced with a situation that forces him to deal with his inner conflicts. In this hard-hitting novel, Linden MacIntyre tackles one of the most troubling issues of our time: the sexual abuse of children by members of the Catholic clergy, and the role of the church in covering up those crimes.
The Bishop's Man won the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2009.
From the book
Something about the boat, perhaps its name, and the posture of that boy caused me to defer my anxieties for the moment. It was so rare to see someone that age stationary, somber. I was more accustomed to a rowdy adolescent enthusiasm. This young man, I realized, was exceptional only because of time and place. Maybe any one of them in those circumstances would have been the same. Quiet. But he caught my attention nevertheless and linked the moment to tender places in the memory. Doomed boys and men: in retrospect they all have that stillness.
From The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre ©2009. Published by Vintage Canada.