Patrick Fitzmike and Mike Fitzpatrick — Larry Smith

Inspired by the lives and careers of Cardinal Francis Spellman and Cardinal Richard Cushing, Larry Smith's Patrick Fitzmike and Mike Fitzpatrick evokes the political turmoil, sexual torment, and moral crises that have beset the Catholic Church and defined our era. It is an unrelenting fiction replete with Popes and Presidents, parish priests and Broadway chorus boys. Rich in its complex prose and dark humor, this narrative offers up the spiritual antipodes of human experience, from the lofty machinations of global potentates to the naked prayers of a sinful desperate saint.