“An elegantly written, compact and often subtle tale of morality and passion that gives voice to an age-old concern in a fresh way.” — New York Times Book Review
Jeanette Haien’s award-winning novel relates the seemingly simple tale of a parishioner confiding in her priest—revelations that provoke a moral quandary for not only the clergyman, but the reader as well. With a foreword written and narrated by bestselling author Ann Patchett.
While fishing in an Irish salmon stream one rainy morning, Father Declan de Loughry ponders the recent deathbed confession of his parishioner Kevin Dennehy. It seems Dennehy and his wife, Enda, had been quietly living a lie for fifty years. Yet the gravity of their deception doesn’t become clear to the good father until Enda shares the full tale of her suffering, finally confiding “the all of it.”
Haien’s intimate novel of conversations and dilemmas is perfect for readers of Paul Harding’s Tinkers, Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood and Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These.
Jeannette Haien is the author of the acclaimed novel The All of It, winner of the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In addition to her career as a writer, Jeannette Haien is well known as a concert pianist and teacher. She and her husband, a lawyer, live in New York City and Connemara, Ireland.
Ann Patchett is the author of novels, most recently the #1 New York Times bestselling Tom Lake, works of nonfiction, and children's books. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the PEN/Faulkner, the Women's Prize for Fiction in the UK, and the Book Sense Book of the Year. Her novel The Dutch House was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages, and Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. President Biden awarded her the National Humanities Medal in recognition of her contributions to American culture. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is the owner of Parnassus Books.