The Pilgrimage by Broderick, John

Description

‘Fearless and frank and sometimes comic’ Colm Tóibín

‘I absolutely loved The Pilgrimage… Brilliant… A book about what it feels like to live with doubt and still keep going’ Orla Mackey

‘A brooding and beautifully observed short novel’ Jan Carson

Someone knows about Julia Glynn’s affair. She and husband Michael are the envy of their neighbours: prosperous, devout, the model couple. Then one day, an anonymous letter arrives with the morning papers, describing Julia’s trysts with Michael’s nephew in obscene detail.

Frantic with suspicion and frustrated desire, Julia imagines catastrophe in their small, curtain-twitching town. As the letters keep arriving, she struggles to retain composure and proceed with plans for a family pilgrimage to Lourdes – only for other buried scandals to come knocking at the door of their pristine home.

Frank in its depiction of sexuality and queerness in 1950s Ireland, The Pilgrimage was immediately banned on original publication. Outrageous and bleakly funny, it is a powerful evocation of the corrosive effects of repression.