‘Who is my father?
Where in the world is he?
Alive or dead?
Sally, a successful actress, has just returned from a long European tour to her house in Goatstown. Exhausted, she wants only to rest and to see her husband Charlie again. But Charlie announces that he's leaving her, and Sally devastated and furious, makes him pack his bags at once, Maybe, though, she wonders later, she really is too lard to live with.
As a child growing up in Dublin , Sally never had friends around to play like other children: her lonely, sectetive, unmarried mother had kept her at home beside he. Now, playing any of a host of characters, she makes good use of her years of observing grown-up behaviour. On stage, Sally can effortlessly mimic others, but who is she herself?
Suddenly, a face and a shadowy voice come into her mind. With desperate courage, Sally sets out to call on her grandfather, the reserved, dignified old Bishop she has never really known.
Exercising breathtaking control, Jennifer Johnston writes about a subject would prefer to forget, and is able to make us laugh and gasp with horror in equal measure. Crace and Trutb is an unforgettable, powerful and compassionate novel.
