num_pages: 399
description: The year is 1993 and Father Duncan MacAskill stands at a small Cape Breton fishing harbour a few miles from where he grew up. Enjoying the timeless sight of a father and son piloting a boat Duncan takes a moments rest from his worries. But he does not yet know that his already strained faith is about to be tested by his interactions with a troubled boy 18-year-old Danny MacKay.Known to fellow priests as the Exorcist because of his special role as clean-up man for the Bishop of Antigonish Duncan has a talent for coolly reassigning deviant priests while ensuring minimal fuss from victims and their families. It has been a lonely vocation but Duncan is generally satisfied that his work is a necessary defense of the church. All this changes when lawyers and a policeman snoop too close for the bishops comfort. Duncan is assigned a parish in the remote Cape Breton community of Creignish and told to wait it out. This is not the first time Duncan has been sent away for knowing too much: decades ago the displeased bishop sent a more idealistic Duncan to Honduras for voicing suspicions about a revered priest. It was there that Duncan first tasted forbidden love with the beautiful Jacinta. It was also there that he met the courageous Father Alfonso who taught him more about spiritual devotion than he had ever known back home. But when an act of violence in Honduras shook Duncan to his core he returned home a changed man willing to quietly execute the bishops commands.Now decades later in Cape Breton Duncan claims to his concerned sister Effie that isolation is his preference. But when several women seek to befriend him along with some long-estranged friends Duncan is alternately tempted and unnerved by their attentions. Drink becomes his only solace.Attempting to distract himself with parish work Duncan takes an interest in troubled young Danny whose good-hearted father sells Duncan a boat he names The Jacinta. To Duncans alarm he discovers that the boy once spent time with an errant priest who had been dispatched by Duncan himself to Port Hood. Duncan begins to ask questions dreading the answers. When tragedy strikes he knows that he must act. But will his actions be those of a good priest or an all too flawed man?Winner of the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize Linden MacIntyres searing The Bishops Man is an unforgettable and complex character study of a deeply conflicted man at the precipice of his life. Can we ever be certain of an individuals guilt or innocence? Is violence ever justified? Can any act of contrition redeem our own complicity?
language: English
title: The Bishop's Man
publisher: Random House Canada