Faith

In THE LOST GOSPEL, Jennifer Haigh explores the repercussions of one family's history of silence, when a priest's sex scandal forces his family's untold past to surface. Art, Sheila, and Mike are siblings in a large extended Irish-American family from the Boston suburbs. Though their father is a non-believer, their mother is Lace Curtain Irish-Catholic, having raised her children to keep family secrets just that, secrets, in a home where most subjects are taboo.

Sheila is concerned when Art, beloved priest leading a major Catholic parish outside Boston, seems to fall off the grid just days before Easter. Then the news breaks that he has been accused of sexual misconduct. The media coverage shatters the community and pits Art's family members against one another, leaving Sheila determined to uncover the truth and-she hopes-clear his name.

Now that Sheila's in town and determined to help prove Art's innocence, she finds herself locking horns with her younger brother, Mike, who cannot shake the feeling that Art might be guilty.

By turns disturbed by what Art might have done and furious at the seemingly unfair accusations, the truth remains elusive for readers in this artfully-crafted family drama.