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. O’Connor achieves this balance partly through characterisation and voices strong enough that we eagerly follow them through uncertainty, mundanity and disappointment as well as high-stakes jeopardy. Violence is indirectly conveyed in the destruction of a fine piano, the appearance of a full set of teeth.

THIS stylish, gripping, and inspiring book, My Father’s House, is based on a true story of courage made manifest through the power of friendship. Readers who enjoy the story will find an excellent bibliography at the end of the novel to find out more about O’Flaherty.The Diocese of Gloucester is looking for two creative, flexible and holistic thinkers who care passionately about nurturing leaders who will share the good news of Jesus Christ and make disciples in all our varied contexts.

One unnamed cardinal is “a long drink of cross-eyed, buck-toothed misery if ever there was, he’d bore the snots off a wet horse. My Father’s House is paced like a crime thriller, with lots of single-sentence paragraphs to build up the suspense: “The fox of his fears prowls a carpet of broken glass”; “A baker’s truck, revving”; “Sleet hisses hard on the ivy-choked skylight. It’s an indicator of what is to follow, namely a seamless blend of fact and fiction by a master of the genre, resulting in a brisk, polyphonic narrative that brings the heroism of ordinary individuals thrillingly to life. But he is forbidden to enter Vatican City, at one-fifth of a square mile, the tiniest country in the world. 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.That these easter eggs are meaningless and even befuddling to new readers might make sense in terms of costs and benefits. People are hidden away by Mgr Hugh O’Flaherty and his network of friends, until it seems that you can’t open a coal cellar without finding a roomful of British soldiers.