The novel is built out of the present-tense close third-person narrative of the priest, Hugh O’Flaherty, the technique historical fiction owes to Hilary Mantel, interspersed with fictional interviews conducted for a radio programme in 1963 with the seven people running the escape line under Hugh’s direction.

Book Review - My Father’s House - Joseph O’Connor Book Review - My Father’s House - Joseph O’Connor

We learn to know him through the warm tales of his life as a priest fresh to Rome, and his delight and ease in the city. O’Connor has assembled a wonderful cast, which includes Contessa Giovanna Landini, mourning her husband; Delia Kiernan, wife of the senior Irish diplomat to the Vatican, a singer with the voice of an angel; Marianna de Vries, a freelance journalist; Enzo Angelucci, an Italian newsagent, and Major Sam Derry, an escaped British POW. Photograph: Anonymous/AP Pope Pius XII tours Rome following an air raid during the second world war. I was reminded of the novels of John Boyne, Kate Atkinson, and most unusually, Andrew O’Hagan’s wonderful novel on fame, Personality, which has a similarly dazzling way with voice and historical period detail. With an Irish priest in Vatican City at the novel’s centre, there are also persistent questions about the idea and morality of neutrality, especially for the church.Where My Father’s House really shines is in O’Connor’s assembly of the material and his ventriloquistic way with voice. His awards include the Prix Zepter for European Novel of the Year, France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, an American Library Association Award and the Irish Pen Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature. It was based on what was known as the 'Rome escape line,' where people risked their lives to save thousands. The choir is made up of colorful characters, from the newspaper seller Enzo Angelucci, Delia Kiernan, wife of the senior Irish diplomat to the Vatican, and the Contessa Giovanna Landini .

My Father’s House book review: Irish priest who defied Nazis My Father’s House book review: Irish priest who defied Nazis

His journey into heroism is inevitable once he is faced with the stark brutality of a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp and the craven ambivalence of the papacy.He was brought up to despise British soldiers; now he cannot but rescue them from the Hauptmanns of this world. O’Connor keeps an admirable command of the various strains and voices, some fictional, others, such as the British diplomat Sir D’Arcy Osborne, drawn from reality.