Although a novel, A HISTORY OF LONELINESS moves at times like a collection of stories, told to us in a non-linear path, as we come and go through the life of Irish priest Odran Yates. Odran is a benevolent yet conflicted man --- a man whose family he cannot reach and whose life calling, that of the priesthood, becomes corrupted when his closest friend gets too close to the young boys of the clergy.

Through our own already established notions, we understand more than is ever said. The subtleties presented here are masterful. Author John Boyne chooses to keep the focus on the results of molestation and what happens as the young victims, confused and changed irrevocably, go through life isolated in their pain. We see the effects, not the acts themselves --- a closed door or a hand on a shoulder lets our imagination do the work, and when we are taken to later points, we see the disparity and loneliness it creates. Through this, we are given a haunting and beautiful novel.

In one scene, Odran spots a young boy lost in a department store and escorts him outside to where he is told the child's mother is. Odran is a good man, but what he represents is perceived to be corrupt. The witnesses don’t know him, but they recognize that he’s a church man and are aware of what some priests have done. It’s an isolating experience for Odran, who has good values and grew up believing in the church, but is seen at face value by his white collar. Consequently, he is arrested and taken into custody for abducting the boy.

"A HISTORY OF LONELINESS is a haunting and heartfelt account, relaying the strong inner emotions of one’s life. It’s a surreal and beautiful journey through times that feel familiar yet fresh, but is also inexplicably sad in its handling of missed actions and painful reminiscing of realized mistakes."

This incident takes place in 2011 and follows a chapter set nearly 40 years earlier in 1973. That is the beauty of Boyne’s novel, as each chapter takes us into another place in time in the life of Odran Yates. Going back farther to 1964, we learn that Odran’s father quits his job and pursues an acting career, only to fail miserably and then take to drinking. The scenes here are beautiful and reminiscent of such great works as James Agee’s A DEATH IN THE FAMILY in their poetic stature and frank openness of death. They’re also heartbreaking in their hope, which soon gets dashed as Odran’s father comes to a fateful end and the family structure soon breaks.

Following his father’s decline, Odran’s mother becomes devoutly religious, and thus it is decided that Odran must become a priest. This is in 1972, after Odran, then a shy, naive youth, ends up with a girl in his bedroom. The remedy, his mother decides, is a visit from an old and abrasive priest, Father Haughton. This man of the cloth digs into Odran, getting him to admit that he liked being with a girl and interrogating him to tears. The heavy-handedness reaches to intimidation as Odran faints under the fear. It’s a powerful scene in a novel filled with moving moments. It is then decided by his mother that his vocation will be the priesthood, at which point he is shipped to a seminary school at Clonliffe College, where he begins his studies.

Odran is a soft-spoken and sympathetic character, yet is frozen by contradictions in keeping true to his devout life as a priest and doing what is just to help those who are hurt. He leads with his heart, having fierce opinions on priesthood and how it should be viewed. When the reputation of the church sullies good men such as himself, he inwardly becomes uneasy yet still internalizes --- numbed by guilt, and then failing to take action. If anything, he soaks in feelings, as he relates “The guilt. The guilt, the guilt, the guilt…” over seeing his friend, Tom Cardle, beaten, his father fade, the corruption of the church, and, finally, the broken hopes of those he loves.

From Odran’s life as a young boy to witnessing his sister's descent into nothingness after the tragic death of her husband, to his life in seminary, assistance to the pope and up-front corruption of his life’s institution, it all adds up to a superb novel. A HISTORY OF LONELINESS is a haunting and heartfelt account, relaying the strong inner emotions of one’s life. It is a surreal and beautiful journey through times that feel familiar yet fresh, but is also inexplicably sad in its handling of missed actions and painful reminiscing of realized mistakes. To read it is to become fully engrossed in the life of one man. What we learn through Boyne's work is that the silence of just one man can be the difference between a life lived and a life broken.