The Holy City — Patrick McCabe

In this strange, hypnotic novel, Chris McCool, the dandyish, debonair playboy of a small and insulated community called The Happy Club, reflects his two lives: the one he lives, and the darker one he's tried hard to forget. The illegitimate son of a rich Protestant landowner's wife and a poor Catholic farmer, Chris wanted to be a sixties swinger--driving a Ford Cortina, owning a pair of purple velvet flares--but, despite his good intentions, could not overcome the mysteries and regrets of his own upbringing.

With a series of Freudian flourishes, McCabe gives us a narrator whose own insecurities, and most importantly his obsession with a young Catholic Nigerian boy named Marcus Otoyo, prevent him from seeing the truth of what he is capable of. Are Chris' inner struggles with his parentage and religion merely personal quests--or do they mask an angrier, more dangerous person beneath?

Tense, artful, and eerily compelling, The Holy City is a novel of faith, anxiety, and dark secrets, with a stunning and brilliant conclusion.