Description
Book SynopsisWhen Father Almida is summoned to an audience with the parish''s principal benefactor, a stand-in is found in Father Matamoros, a drunkard with an angel''s voice whose sung mass is mesmerizing to all. But Matamoros hides a darker side, and when the church''s residents throw a feast for him he encourages them to lose all their inhibitions and give free reign to their most Bacchanalian desires.
A satire on the iniquities of the Catholic church in Colombia, Good Offices is at once comic, surreal and startling, a novel that will linger long in the mind.
Trade Review'Moving from offbeat humour to soaring spiritual ecstasy, it has both pathos and punch' Maya Jaggi, Guardian. * Guardian *
'A novella about hope and the possibility of realising it ... written with brio, and with vivid illuminating touches ... It reads beautifully' Allan Massie, Scotsman. * Scotsman *
'The Catholic Church takes a real kicking in this slim yet invective-packed satire ... lays bare the hypocrisy of the Church in richly descriptive sentences' Sunday Business Post. * Sunday Business Post *
'A fable of vice and desire as comic as it is disturbing' Lucy Scholes, Sunday Times. * Sunday Times *
'An entertaining and engaging read, with arresting images that linger in the mind long after the book has been returned to the shelf' Wayne Gooderham, Time Out. * Time Out *
'a ripe and atmospheric satire on ecclesiastical hypocrisy' Sunday Telegraph. * Sunday Telegraph *
