Award-winning Canadian author of What Disturbs Our Blood, James Fitzgerald, says of Grace Ungiven: "...a well-crafted labour of love and conscience."
A tragic story uncovers the depths of dysfunction in the Catholic Church.
How can a story about a man trying to bring an abusive priest to justice reveal truth about the Catholic clerical child sexual abuse crisis? Grace Ungiven, based on extensive research and over 100 in-depth interviews with Catholics from all walks of life, achieves this. It is, essentially, a fictional account of fact. Seventeen years ago, as an altar boy, Mickey Kavanaugh was sexually abused by his priest and went into self-imposed exile. He is broken, psychologically scarred and suffering ever since. Starting a victim support website for some measure of healing, he found another victim on the site abused by the same priest, around the same time and place, with DNA evidence he still holds. Mickey returns home on a desperate quest for justice and redemption, rounding up some old friends to make the case stick.
In this time of social conscience, activism and advocacy, what of justice for these children? With a fascinating blend of original storytelling and raw truth, Grace Ungiven delivers an unvarnished yet sensitive treatment of this ongoing crisis in a fast-paced tale of intrigue, romance, sex and crime. Read it with compassion for what is happening to these children, and finish it knowing why.