The Deposition of Father McGreevy

In a London pub in the 1950s, the editor William Maginn hears of the shameful end of a mountain village in Kerry, where he was born. In the town below, people will not talk, until he gets hold of the statement Father Hugh McGreevy gave to the police after more than thirty years as the village's priest. Most of the book is that statement. It tells of a terrible winter in which every wife and mother in the village died, and of the next, just as harsh, when the remaining men struggle on. The madness of a damaged young man, the decline of the priest's housekeeper, a death and a fire feed rumours of perversion in the town, as McGreevy tries to hold his people and their old ways together.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Historical (assigned by AI)

Set in

Ireland, 1930s–1950s

First published

1999

Author's age

71 when first published

ISBN

9781885983398 (Turtle Point Press, United States)

9781900850681 (Arcadia Books, United Kingdom)

More

Wikidata