by David Lodge
First published 1999
A group of Catholic students at an English university in the 1950s and 1960s struggle between their religious convictions and human desires. Lodge follows these young men and women as they confront the rigid moral teachings of their faith while discovering their own sexuality and ambitions. The students attend confession, debate theology, and attempt to live by strict Catholic doctrine, but their bodies and hearts pull them toward forbidden pleasures. Some abandon their beliefs entirely, others find ways to rationalize their transgressions, and a few cling desperately to their original convictions. Lodge dissects each character with surgical precision, exposing the contradictions between what they profess and how they actually live. The novel reveals the psychological cost of extreme religious repression in a puritanical society where desire and doctrine clash irreconcilably.
Genres: fiction, drama, 20th-century, contemporary, academic, catholic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forbidden-love
Setting: England, United Kingdom
Period: 1950s, 1960s
288 pages · Paperback · RIVAGES
Content warnings: sexual-content