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The Father's Tale

4.26 of 5 stars 4.26 · rating details · 140 ratings · 35 reviews

Canadian bookseller Alex Graham is a middle-age widower whose quiet life is turned upside down when his college-age son disappears from school in England. Leaving his safe and orderly world for the first time in his life, Graham travels to Oxford, Russia and beyond in search of his lost son who might have become involved with a high-brow, New Age group. The father's odysse...more

Hardcover, 1076 pages

Published September 1st 2011 by Ignatius Press (first published August 31st 2011)

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Jul 31, 2012 Christin Weber rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've read most of O'Brien's books and am enjoying this one as much as the others. He's a pre-Vatican II Catholic novelist in the liberal tradition of what we used to call a Commonweal Catholic. At least that's my take on the philosophy that rises out of his stories. His characters struggle with intense issues of the soul, the sort of gut-wrenching experiences that Gerard Manley Hopkins addressed in his poetry: "Oh the mind, mind has mountains, cliffs of fall, sheer, steep, no-man-fathomed. Hold...more

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Jan 16, 2012 Phillip rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle, favorites

Life's circumstances lent well to me reading this novel – I was on break from school, I deactivated my Facebook account and found myself somewhat of a social withdrawal, and my family went out of town, leaving me to a quiet house for four days. Consequently, I read The Father's Tale (a monster of a novel, coming in at a little over one thousand pages) in just about a week. And what an immaculate week it was!

O'Brien begins his novel in a quiet and friendly Canadian town. The main character – Alex...more Life's circumstances lent well to me reading this novel – I was on break from school, I deactivated my Facebook account and found myself somewhat of a social withdrawal, and my family went out of town, leaving me to a quiet house for four days. Consequently, I read The Father's Tale (a monster of a novel, coming in at a little over one thousand pages) in just about a week. And what an immaculate week it was!

O'Brien begins his novel in a quiet and friendly Canadian town. The main character – Alex Graham – is an introverted bookseller, whose best friend is the local parish priest and whose family has either passed away or moved on to bigger and greater things. What may seem like a pathetic existence to an onlooker is simply a misunderstanding. Alex is genuinely happy: he enjoys getting lost in his books, he likes his town and his house, and he has a devotion to God that would put most middle-aged men to shame. Then, in classic O'Brien fashion, life is turned upside down. When it comes to light that Alex's younger son has gotten caught up in the wrong crowd and hasn't returned to the university after Christmas break, Alex takes immediate action. What ensues is a trip around the world (though it takes far longer than eighty days) in search of his son. His adventure is filled with rich culture, deep, spiritual histories, and life-changing experiences that have an impact on both the reader and on the bookseller in search of his son.

O'Brien has described this novel as a modern-day retelling of the parables of the Good Shepherd and the Prodigal Son. What left an impression upon me after reading The Father's Tale was the idea of the fatherhood of God. God is not some distant being, not another thing in the cosmos. God is our Father, who loves us and who actively seeks us out. Above all, he wants us to believe and trust in him.

This is the second O'Brien novel I've read, and I'm nothing but excited to chip away at his bibliography. The Father's Tale is a treasure, a love story, and a beautiful piece of art! Cling to it, learn from it, and enjoy it immensely.(less)

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Nov 07, 2011 Jeff Miller rated it 4 of 5 stars

Closer to 5 stars.

With author Michael O'Brien there are certain things you come to expect in his novels. Deep character sketches so well-crafter that the words almost demand that the person depicted is more than just fictional. Characters who are emotionally wounded, physically wounded, or a combination of this. A spiritual dimension that is just not a polish to the story, but an integral part of it. Cultural commentary and even art criticism are also components.

In his new novel "The Father's Ta...more Closer to 5 stars.

With author Michael O'Brien there are certain things you come to expect in his novels. Deep character sketches so well-crafter that the words almost demand that the person depicted is more than just fictional. Characters who are emotionally wounded, physically wounded, or a combination of this. A spiritual dimension that is just not a polish to the story, but an integral part of it. Cultural commentary and even art criticism are also components.

In his new novel "The Father's Tale" the story is told of Alex Graham a bookseller and widower who has withdrawn from life and into his books. A basically good and pious man who after his wife's death has kept to himself avoiding any societal entanglements. His staid life is fractured when his college-age son disappears.

Michael O'Brien calls this novel "A modern retelling of the parables The Good Shepherd and The Prodigal Son." which is a very apt description. In this regards it reminds me favorably of Ron Hansen's "Atticus" another book I loved. The Prodigal Son theme is at several levels. Alex Graham while looking for his prodigal son is himself a prodigal son in relationship to God the Father. Other characters fall into this theme also. Alex Graham embarks on a world-wide chase after his son in a nightmare journey that is also a dark night of the soul. The feeling of the loss of God combines with alienation from the world around him as he comes to seemingly lose all support. His journey is a purgative road where he meets many people along the way in the search for his son.

At over a 1000 pages this is not a simple adventure story and a rescuing of a son, but something deeper and richer. Again you can see aspects of Michael O'Brien the iconographer in his writing along with the theological emphasis of the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches. This aspect especially shines through here. O'Brien certainly has a tendency to monologue via his characters at times, but I forgive him this because he has something to say that is worth hearing. You might think there should have been plenty of room for an editor to scale back the size of the book, but there is not a section I would have wanted cut. The novel left me both entertained and thoughtful afterwards. The plot itself took so many twists and turns that I came to not be able to anticipate what was going to happen next other than the general flow of the theme. It is always hard to evaluate a novel fresh after reading it in comparison to the author's other novels. Regardless, I feel this is his finest novel to date.

The Ignatius Press audiobook version is again done by Kevin O'Brien. I listen to a fair amount of professionally done audiobooks and i would place Kevin O'Brien skills in the upper tier. His ensemble of voices and performance brings something extra to an already good story.(less)

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Feb 11, 2012 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

What an epic ripper despite its apparent lengthiness this turned out to be. For a youngish/middle aged Dad like myself, here is a riveting, relentless and ultimately redeeming journey that explores the theme that Chesterton praises as the "Romance of Orthodoxy" in a wonderful transformational story of a father that - truth be told - made me shed more than the odd tear along the way.

#### vague spoiler alert #####

Certainly well worth the read if you are prepared to last for the whole book. Then t...more

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May 19, 2012 Catie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: re-readers

I read this in a week....it was thrilling and yet deeply touching. He gives you so much to dwell on in your own life through his search for his son, his spiritual journey and growth through brokenness, his introverted, melancholic personality and its struggles- so applicable. Even though the tale is of a father searching for his son, I found it personally applicable to all of our eternal search for a father figure in our lives, which God alone fulfills. His struggles with his failures, his apath...more

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Oct 23, 2011 Webster Bull rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: faith

Both Ignatius Press and I have bent over backward for Michael O’Brien. Ignatius leveled a small forest to print the new 1,072-page book by its franchise novelist, and I gave a week of free time to read it, despite my annoyance at its length. But there are good reasons why card-carrying super-Catholics like Peter Kreeft and Tom Howard blurbed this leviathan. It’s a whale of a ride, as Ahab might have said.

I have particularly enjoyed two other O’Brien novels, Island of the World and Theophilos—tho...more Both Ignatius Press and I have bent over backward for Michael O’Brien. Ignatius leveled a small forest to print the new 1,072-page book by its franchise novelist, and I gave a week of free time to read it, despite my annoyance at its length. But there are good reasons why card-carrying super-Catholics like Peter Kreeft and Tom Howard blurbed this leviathan. It’s a whale of a ride, as Ahab might have said.

I have particularly enjoyed two other O’Brien novels, Island of the World and Theophilos—though I did fail to finish the messy, visionary Father Elijah. Being a Catholic reader and writer, I want to follow what O’Brien’s doing. He is the Catholic novelist du jour, since the other O’B (Patrick) sailed west.

Thumbnail plot: Alexander Graham is a widower with two grown sons. He lives in a small town north of Toronto, running an antiquarian bookshop named Kingfisher, a symbolic bird that O’Brien never tires of linking to just about anything. One of Graham’s two sons, a student at Oxford, disappears. Graham discovers that his son has fallen in with a religious cult. Dad goes in search of son, and like Phileas Fogg, he ends traveling around the world. It takes him way more than 80 days.

Through the first 800 or 900 pages of “The Father’s Tale,” I could not help thinking of snarky things to write about it. It is too long by half. When, on page 371, Graham can not “dismiss the growing suspicion that he was locked into a Sisyphean ritual that would have him trailing his son all over the world, always a step behind,” the reader may sympathize.

The book begins as a modern retelling of the parable of the prodigal son. (In his travels, Graham happens upon Rembrandt’s work on this theme.) “The Father’s Tale” turns into a Michelin guidebook for anyone traveling from Helsinki to Moscow, then eastward on the Trans-Siberian Railroad; comes to fancy itself as The Bridges of Irkutsk County (when our hero falls in love by the shores of icy Lake Baikal); and concludes like John Le Carré lite, complete with Soviet and Chinese torture and counter-intelligence. It is almost as if O’Brien’s editor, upon reading the desultory first half of the manuscript, ordered the author to spice it up. Instead of editing what he had written, O’Brien then turned the book into first a romance, then a spy thriller. If it weren’t so damn moving, or erudite, “The Father’s Tale” might be laughable.

O’Brien, however, is not only an iconographer (useful when he comes to describe sacred art of the Russian Orthodox Church) but also apparently a scholar of Russian literature, history, and culture. Graham’s favorite room in the Kingfisher bookshop houses his collection of Russian lit, and his fluency stands him in very good stead when he meets a prostitute in Moscow, a remarkable pair of monks beside the Little-Little Ob River, and a beautiful widowed doctor and her two sons-in-need-of-a-father deep in Siberia. O’Brien’s comfort among the stuff of Russian language and culture is reminiscent of, if not quite so impressive as, Patrick O’Brian’s knowledge of 19th century naval warfare and European history in the time of the Napoleonic wars. O’Brien with an “e” takes his reader deep inside Russia today—with a book as long as the Russian landmass.

Any book worth its price has to do at least one of three things: entertain, instruct, inspire. “The Father’s Tale” does all three—although the entertainment, piled mostly into the second half of the book, may seem gratuitous. It is the inspiration for which I will remember this book.

“The Father’s Tale” inspires me to be a better father, and to think about the very nature of fatherhood. “I gave them so little—so little,” Alex says of his sons to his priest friend Toby, and every father worth his salt can sympathize. Yet Graham shows the depth of his love for his sons—and broadens his personal definition of sons and daughters—by undertaking his mission impossible.

With long sections on modern-day martyrs of Russia and underground Catholics of China, the book inspires me to consider the fate of the Catholic Church worldwide, the possible importance of Russia in the world’s history and its future, and the value of a broken heart.

It inspires me to grow closer to Christ in the Eucharist, in His Church, and in the people and events of my daily life. I have been reading, a bit every day, Jean-Pierre de Caussade’s classic Abandonment to Divine Providence, and there are many passages in O’Brien that seem inspired by this work, which looks for the hand of God in the minutest daily happenings. As Graham tells Toby, “God has his hand on it all.” Or as Father Sergius tells Graham, “The only failure is to reject what God wishes to show us.”

At page 1,014 there comes at last what might stand as the moral or buried epigraph for “The Father’s Tale.” It is a line from scripture in the telling of the battle of David and Goliath. I will leave it to you to read your way to this moral. It is worth working for.

A final note on the prologue: Read once at the beginning of the book, it will take on a whole new level of meaning if read again at the conclusion of the book. This shift in meaning may help the reader measure how far he or she has traveled on this strange journey with Michael O’Brien. (less)

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Dec 15, 2011 Christopher rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: lit-fiction

More of a 3.5 star read but can't up it to 4. There were some genuinely unique and beautiful insights as well as some rare writing in The Father's Tale. It was these that kept me going through the thousand pages. But it was all few and far between. For me at least, having read quite a bit on the topic, the history that he revealed was parochial and so simplified that in the end it gave you no real grasp of what the Russian people suffered (or despite his short token mystical nod, what the Chines...more

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Mar 15, 2012 Mommymac10 rated it 4 of 5 stars

A thought-provoking book about God, whether He exists, his meaning, relations between countries (mainly Russia and the U.S.), war and peace, parenthood, etcetera. There is enough action going on, tho, to keep readers' interest for all 1100 pages. After all, how many of us could read O'Brien's take on these topics for that many pages? You will pause frequently to consider what he has said. The plot, provided to introduce his real concerns to us, takes a widowed and introverted Canadian used-book...more

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Oct 21, 2011 Kevin Hughes rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: just-fiction

Michael O'Brien adds another wonderful story to his growing body of work. Those familiar with his other novels will find a familiar set of themes and O'Brien's characteristic style.

The characterization is as intelligent and perceptive as always, perhaps even more so. I particularly enjoyed coming to the end of the story and being able to experience a sense of the change in the personality of the main character, Alex Graham. O'Brien successfully brought me from genuinely liking him in the beginni...more

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Dec 20, 2011 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-list

The Father’s Tale, by Michael O’Brien, is an impressive book to look at. It clocks in over 1000 pages and is not for the faint of heart.

It’s a LOT of reading.

But wow! WHAT reading!

Here’s literature in the modern day, a little slice of what Dickens might look like if he were writing now. These characters are richly written and real people.

I’ve never been to Russia, and before I read this, I would have thought it unlikely that I would ever go. O’Brien makes his story a journey, and while you may n...more

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Nov 18, 2011 William rated it 5 of 5 stars

When the 1,000 page book arrived from Amazon, I was feaful. Another successful author had lost the ability to edit himself, and had no one around him brave enough to criticize. I was wrong. This was a long, rich, journey of a book, and I had tears in my eyes as I turned the last page.

O'Brien tends to write about the journey of the faithful in a world where faith is marginalized, or actively resisted. This book has his most well-developed protagonist yet - an imperfect, self-absorbed man lead un...more

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Aug 24, 2012 John O'Brien rated it 4 of 5 stars

My father is kind enough to send copies of his novels to his offspring, and this one, his latest, came out last fall. At over 1000 pages, it looks intimidatingly like a Russian novel, and while much of it does indeed take place in Russia, it is a page-turner that I devoured in less than two weeks – during the frenzied heart of graduate school, no less. Warning: it’s a weeper, but in the sense of “good-sad”. Perhaps it’s because the heart of the Father seems so close, especially while the charact...more

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May 26, 2012 Skipr rated it 4 of 5 stars

O'Brien tells the story of Canadian Alex Graham, who leaves his quiet, safe, small-town life to travel literally to the other side of the world in search of one of his young sons Andrew. This novel combines mystery, adventure, and spiritual journey. Maybe that's why it's over 1000 pages! One of its weaknesses is that some of the subplots aren't fully integrated. But, hey, that's life. And for the reader who may begin to get restless about two-thirds of the way through, my advice is "Keep going!"...more

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Feb 24, 2012 Margaret Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm currently 70 pages in to almost 1100, but it's good so far! I like Michael O'Brien's fiction, so I'm pretty motivated, but I'm a little skeptical that I can finish before it's due back to the library.

When I checked it out, the librarian she and the other staff were "impressed" with the size. My first impression was that he needed a less generous editor. We'll see how it goes!

UPDATE: I liked the story very much; it would be a great fiction choice for Lent. One of the story lines was seemingly...more

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Jan 05, 2012 Julie Davis rated it 2 of 5 stars

He was losing all affection for Russia. It was a crazy country, full of crazy people. At any moment, crazy things came out of nowhere and ran over the unsuspecting traveler, shot him with an arrow or shook him like a pea in a tin can. Moreover, he realized that he had left behind at Obsk the bag in which he had carried his clothing, and he was doubly disturbed that he had not noticed until now. He possessed only the clothes on his back and the shoulder bag containing his documents, money, and a

...more

He was losing all affection for Russia. It was a crazy country, full of crazy people. At any moment, crazy things came out of nowhere and ran over the unsuspecting traveler, shot him with an arrow or shook him like a pea in a tin can. Moreover, he realized that he had left behind at Obsk the bag in which he had carried his clothing, and he was doubly disturbed that he had not noticed until now. He possessed only the clothes on his back and the shoulder bag containing his documents, money, and a few books. Once again, everything was going wrong.

Alexander Graham, is the father of two sons, both old enough to be living their own lives. A widower living in the small Canadian town of Halcyon, Alex runs the bookstore on a shoestring, barely making ends meet. When he attempts to call his son Andrew in Oxford for Christmas, Alex finds Andrew is unexpectedly missing. Further investigation reveals that Andrew may be in the clutches of a New Age religious cult so Alex borrows money against his store and sets off to England. He winds up following them to Europe and then across Russia as the pursuit takes on a life of its own.

Clearly Michael O'Brien has a passion for Russian literature and for the Russian people who are so affectionately and realistically portrayed in this novel (as far as I know ... since I don't know any Russians). Just as clearly, he has passion for music, poetry, fathers, and sons as evidenced by continuing threads throughout the book.

Whether it was necessary for him to write a 1,072 page book to tell his story is not as clear.

You'd think the story of a father trying to find and rescue his missing college-aged son from a religious cult would be sensational, quick paced, and shocking. Well, no. However, as O'Brien told it, the story kept pulling me along. I could feel for the father's uncertainty about what action to take, his constant worry about lack of funds for continuing Russian travels, and his worry over whether his son was being held against his will or whether this was the son's choice ... and what to do in either case.

This was definitely an interesting tale in that it contrasted the usual thriller type fare of cults and being lost in a strange country while steadily losing every possession against Graham's traveling with a slow, meditative pace. The face that we understand very little of what occurs makes us equal with the protagonist. The one thing that is clear is that O'Brien provides food for thought sprinkled throughout the journey. I have never read Tolstoy so I can't say if this book is similar (as one endorser did), but it is definitely worth reading.

I have to say that this book began dragging for me after the doctor left her two sons in Alex's charge while she went on her trip. I am not sure if I simply was impatient with reading the book after so much time (which is a fault I have, admittedly) or if enough cogitation along the same lines as Alex's had been done already and so was a rerun in some ways. Also his time after coming down the mountain had a completely unrealistic, forced feel to me although I did value its nightmarish quality and the way Alex was used by God after surrendering himself completely. It felt tacked on, especially once he was moved further east. This is a problem I ran up against in the one previous O'Brien book I read. It was as if having satisfactorily reached the last fourth of the book, he felt some compulsion to ratchet up the pace in a way that was completely out of synch with the rest of the book. In this book, I found many of the plot points at the end completely ridiculous. I'd have preferred it if some points were left hanging rather than reading the explanation that the author provided.

Oddly enough, despite my complaints about things going on too long, I felt as if Andrew's story, once finally revealed, was incomplete. Too short, too few details ... more of "a shot rang out and everyone dropped dead" quality.

Interesting.

So, it is a good book and worth reading, but definitely not perfect. I am not sure where I'd do it if I were the editor, but I don't think it needed to be so long to tell the story. Long, yes. 1,077 pages long, no.

"That was my papa's hat," Kiril informed him with a smile that said, I'm glad it's on your head; it's a fine thing to see it in use; that's what hats are for. And so Alex felt the pain of his new role, a transient father filling in the gap left by the real father. A token hat. Could a child survive on symbols alone?

Alex felt at such moment the strangeness of his situation, as if his life's meaning was taking a form that had been chosen for him by someone else, leaving him only small freedoms. Within that limited zone he could choose to love or not love, to speak truth or not speak it. But it was undeniable that he was locked within a prison of circumstances.

He reminded himself that he was not in solitary confinement. This was some comfort, but it did not answer the fundamental question: Why was he here? If life was neither purely accident nor purely determined, what was going on? Was it a mixture of accidental and determined? And why was the world perceived so differently by two souls standing side by side? For Alex, the world threatened at every moment to become a neo-Pavlovian maze. For Kiril, it was always a vast playing field. Which of the two was the correct view of existence? Neither? Both?

You may read a longer excerpt of a section I particularly liked here.(less)

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May 03, 2012 Sonya rated it 3 of 5 stars

At over 1000 pages it was quite an undertaking to read, but I was determined to get through it. I did take breaks now and then to read another book - or two, but I actually finished it more quickly than I expected. I'm not sure what to think of it. A large part of what kept me going was that I had to find out what the point of it was. Whenever I thought I had figured out where it was going the story veered off in a new direction. As the reader, my experience mirrored the protagonist's - he was l...more

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Jan 13, 2012 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Just bought this book and can't wait to get into it. Michael O'Brien is, I think, one of the great novelists of the 20th (and now 21st) Century. His Island of the World was better than all the earlier ones, hard to read for the pathos, yet so gripping I couldn't put it down.

I love his writing for the strong characterizations, the grasp of human nature in all its shame and glory, and his profound spiritual grasp. Plus, he does it all with enormous grace and beauty. It's true that his novels are v...more

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Sep 06, 2012 Aimee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: catholic-books

What an achingly beautiful portrait of redemptive suffering and a life completely abandoned to the will of God! I love Mr. O'Brien's tales of concrete faith bathed in mysticism. He always inspires me to simplify, to love and to seek God, all with abandon. Please don't ever stop writing, Michael O'Brien!

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Sep 12, 2012 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars

As usual, O'Brien's books tend to be too long by about 1/3. After an exciting beginning the story slows down until we barely remember why Alexander was even on his quest. The ending is satisfactory, but there is some dead weight in the middle.

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Feb 14, 2012 Leyla rated it 5 of 5 stars

A flawed masterpiece. Downside not worth getting into in the face of such a monumental saga. Modern Pinocchio to real man. Scene in Russian prison still has smoke trails floating up from the searing my brain took. Highly highly recommended.

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Mar 10, 2012 Michaelbatte is currently reading it

Fascinating epic journey about a father searching for his son and on the way good is pitted against evil in society and his mind, and he learns a lot about humanity and Russian way of life

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Dec 29, 2011 Dan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, catholic-fiction, 5-star

No other modern fiction writer has gripped my spiritual imagination like Michael D O'Brien. Like his other novels, you undergo a literary purgatory - suffering with these everyday characters - seeing them broken down before they can be raised up. The Father's Tale is a beautiful story. As a new father myself, I think of the love I have for my son - the ends of the earth that I would travel to keep him safe. It also, more importantly, reminds us how far God goes to protect us. Rarely do we clearl...more

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Apr 14, 2012 Rhea Steel rated it 5 of 5 stars

A wonderful book that takes you on an adventure of a lifetime! Heart touching and thought provoking.

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Aug 14, 2012 Barb rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a fascinating read. I loved the depth of his writing.

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Aug 16, 2012 Jeffrey rated it 5 of 5 stars

A tremendous story of self-sacrifice and fatherhood.

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Jul 26, 2012 Micki rated it 3 of 5 stars

O'Brien has gone over the top with this book. For the most part the story is a real grabber. Then the main character gets to Siberia and it really bogs down. It took me to this point in the book to realize that the story really isn't about a father looking for his son, it's about the father. I have to admit that I did flip through some of the pages during that long Siberian section. Just not enough action for me. I guess it just wouldn't be an O'Brien book with all of those digressions but he's...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Dane rated it 5 of 5 stars

great book. thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Sep 17, 2012 Kathy O'Brien rated it 5 of 5 stars

Great read--thoughtful passages.

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Jul 06, 2012 Stacie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Cried at the end....a great book!!

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Feb 26, 2012 Summiz26 rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am not Roman Catholic. I am not highly educated. But this novel is a masterpiece. I've read Dostoyevsky, Dickens, Tolkien and the like, and Michael O'Brien ranks among them. God lovers, God haters, agnostics, and atheists alike should read him. Genuinely brilliant and enthralling!

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About Michael D. O'Brien

Michael D. O'Brien is a Roman Catholic author, artist, and frequent essayist and lecturer on faith and culture, living in Combermere, Ontario, Canada.

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“Yet he saw that in all places there was originality, resulting from the human efforts at decoration and ingenious methods of survival.” — 2 people liked it

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