Absolution

by Mary McPhee

A burnt-out Catholic priest and a woman doctor with a past meet at a make-shift clinic on the Syrian-Iraqi border. It is a reconnection for ten years ago Father Joseph Luger (Lujhere) heard Jane Browne’s desperate, late-night confession. Jane—who was Angela Perrault in those days—was a seventeen-year-old student at a high school in a U.S. city where Father Luger taught religion. He was a young, untried new priest. She confessed to a terrible crime but evaded his questions about it, trying his patience. Although he doesn’t quite believe her, he gives her absolution. Soon after, there are serious consequences of his less than wise handling of a distraught young person. Through their growing relationship under stressful conditions of aiding refugees from the Syrian rebellion, a strong attraction grows between them, plus the understanding that each is the reason the other is there, in such an unforgiving place. But forgiveness is what they both seek, or absolution. Their need for this is rooted in what happened ten years before. One of them is forced to make a devastating choice.

139 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 5, 2016

Reviews

[Loretta Giacoletto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well done, author Mary McPhee. And kudos for “Absolution,” an evenly paced novel that kept me spellbound from its ambivalent beginning to its gut-wrenching climax. I especially enjoyed the Middle East setting with its cast of diverse characters that included a global medical staff and non-judgmental clerics, both groups dedicated to withstanding the ever-increasing violence of ISIS terrorist groups with their own set of values.