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#BookReview #Ad My Father’s House by Joseph O’Connor

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My Father's HouseAbout the Book

September 1943: German forces occupy Rome. Gestapo boss Obersturmbannführer Paul Hauptmann rules with terror. Hunger is widespread. Rumours fester. The war’s outcome is far from certain.

Diplomats, refugees, and escaped Allied prisoners flee for protection into Vatican City, at one fifth of a square mile the world’s smallest state, a neutral, independent country within Rome. A small band of unlikely friends led by a courageous Irish priest is drawn into deadly danger as they seek to help those seeking refuge.

Format: Hardback (288 pages)          Publisher: Vintage
Publication date: 26th January 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

My only previous experience of Joseph O’Connor’s work is his novel Shadowplay, a fictionalized account of the life of Bram Stoker which was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Fiction 2020. That book utilised a number of structural techniques including diary entries, letters and transcripts of conversations as well as more traditional third person narration, and the same is true of this latest novel. My Father’s House is set in Rome, more precisely in the Vatican, during the Nazi occupation and is described by the publishers as a ‘WWII-era “great escape” novel’.  The book is based on the true story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty who, along with others, risked his life to smuggle thousands of Jews and escaped Allied prisoners out of Italy. The cover for the operations is a choir, with musical or literary terms used as code words.

Although Hugh O’Flaherty is the key character I loved the way the author brought to life the other members of the group. They recount their experiences by means of transcripts of interviews recorded twenty years after the events in question allowing the reader to hear the distinctive voices the author has created for them. For example, the acerbic wit and Irish lilt of displomat’s wife, Delia Kiernan – ‘Some little jack-in-office of a penpusher thinks he’ll lord it over yours truly? Take the back of my arse and boil it’. Or the Italian-American slang of Enzo Angeluccio or the Cockney accent and sardonic asides of John May. Describing his first encounter with his future employer and fellow member of the choir, Sir D’Arcy Osborne, in a Soho nightclub frequented by gay men: ‘So Sir D’Arcy’s in one midnight with a couple of his old school muckers and they’re larking about with the drag boys. It’s coming on a bit fairyland and hark-at-her, Gladys, and they’re calling Sir D’Arcy ‘Francesca’, just good clean fun…’

There are also brilliant little details about life in neutral Vatican City such as the fact it was necessary for residents to apply for a haircut pass the leave its boundaries.

A thriller wouldn’t be thrilling if there wasn’t a formidable opponent. In this case it’s the utterly ruthless Gestapo boss Obersturmbannführer Paul Hauptmann.  One of the standout parts of the book for me was a section entitled ‘The Hunstman’ in which the author gives us a chilling insight into Hauptmann’s domestic life in his heavily fortified home in a former museum that is almost like a prison, and to the motivation for his vile actions. Driven by a deluded patriotism, he dreams of delivering to Hitler a conquest that will strengthen his career and bring prosperity to his family. ‘An example to the whole Fatherland. The Hauptmanns.’

All the while the members of the choir are working on the plans for forthcoming missions they are mindful of the risks they are running. ‘What was being rehearsed would have got us tortured to death by Hauptmann.’ Judging by what we learn about him, he’d have enjoyed that.

The description of My Father’s House as a ‘literary’ thriller is spot on because, alongside the gripping story, the narrative has some brilliant stylistic flourishes. I loved the way the author includes passages made up of short, sharp bursts of descriptive prose that are almost like poetry.  ‘On the fourth floor, breathless, he unlocks the scriptorium and enters. The vast shutters of his workplace half-closed. Bowed bookshelves. Onyx inkwells. Stacks of mouldering files. Mousegnawed dissertations on Christology. Quills and their sharpeners. Letter-openers. Ledgers. Spiderwebbed portraits of virginal martyrs. A knot of tangled scapulars dangling from a doorknob, near a trinity of rickety candlesticks. Relics and rat traps. A skull doing duty as memento mori. Tomes. Bones. Combed texts of encyclicals. Leaded windows left unwashed for a long as anyone can remember.’

My Father’s House is a thrilling story of heroism, intrigue and ingenuity told with great panache.

In three words: Compelling, atmospheric, stylish

Joseph O'ConnorAbout the Author

Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin. His books include Cowboys and Indians, Inishowen, Star of the Sea (American Library Association Award, Irish Post Award for Fiction, France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, Prix Madeleine Zepter for European novel of the year), Redemption Falls, Ghost Light (Dublin One City One Book Novel 2011) and Shadowplay (Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year, Costa Novel of the Year shortlist). His fiction has been translated into forty languages.

He received the 2012 Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Literature and in 2014 he was appointed Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. (Photo/bio: Publisher author page)

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BookReview The Witches of Vardø by Anya Bergman @ZaffreBooks

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Book Cover The Witches of Vardo by Anya BergmanAbout The Witches of Vardø

Norway, 1662. A dangerous time to be a woman, when even dancing can lead to accusations of witchcraft. When Zigri, desperate and grieving after the loss of her husband and son, embarks on an affair with the local merchant, it’s not long before she is sent to the fortress at Vardø, to be tried and condemned as a witch.

Zigri’s daughter Ingeborg sets off into the wilderness to try to bring her mother back home. Accompanying her on this quest is Maren – herself the daughter of a witch ­- whose wild nature and unconquerable spirit gives Ingeborg the courage to venture into the unknown, and to risk all she has to save her family.

Also captive in the fortress is Anna Rhodius, once the King of Denmark’s mistress, who has been sent to Vardø in disgrace. What will she do – and who will she betray – to return to her privileged life at court?

These Witches of Vardø are stronger than even the King of Denmark. In an age weighted against them they refuse to be victims. They will have their justice. All they need do is show their power.

Format: eARC (400 pages)               Publisher: Zaffre
Publication date: 5th January 2023  Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

The setting of The Witches of Vardø, an isolated fishing community in a remote part of Norway in the latter half of the seventeenth century along with its subject matter, reminded me strongly of The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave which I read in 2021. And those who have read, as I have, books such as The Manningtree Witches by A. K. Blakemore or Widdershins by Helen Steadman will be familiar with accusations of witchcraft being levelled against women, especially those considered “different”, for instance women skilled in healing. Also how fear of association can turn a community against those accused, how natural events can be interpreted as portents of evil or how unconventional behaviour can be viewed as a sign of possession by the Devil.

In The Witches of Vardø we follow the story of Zigri’s arrest, imprisonment in the fortress at Vardø, and trial for witchcraft through the eyes of her eldest daughter, Ingeborg.  Ingeborg is determined to rescue her mother and sets out to do so, placing herself and her younger sister in danger. She is accompanied by Maren, the daughter of a woman executed for witchcraft, who urges Ingeborg to trust in the power of women to resist the actions of men and seems able to harness the forces of nature in ways which introduce a supernatural element to the story.

Alongside this is the first person narrative of Anna Rhodius, former mistress of the King of Denmark, who has been banished to  Vardø for reasons she does not understand, much like the unnamed queen in J. R. Thorp’s Learwife. She becomes convinced the way to restore her liberty is to assist the Governor of Finnmark in his mission to search out witches, viewed as a ‘blight’ on the kingdom of Denmark and held responsible for happenings such as storms, the loss of ships and the spread of disease. ‘Yes, yes, now I understand your intent because my exile was a ruse, a pretence, was it not? I am not prisoner but a soldier under your command.’ It results in her entering into an agreement with the Governor that is akin to ‘a pact with the Devil’. The dreadful consequences of the bargain she has made only become apparent much later, although as her own sad history is revealed we learn a little more about her motivation.

The chief male characters – Governor Christopher Orning and witch-hunter Bailiff Lockhert – are utterly vile. (A welcome contrast is provided by Zare, a young Sámi man, who plays a key role in Ingeborg’s endeavours, the Sámi themselves being a persecuted community.) Fuelled by a combination of lust for power, religious fanaticism and perverted misogyny, the cruelty and violence of Orning’s and Lockhert’s efforts to force the women accused of witchcraft to confess would be beyond belief were it not that they are based on historical fact, as the author explains in her fascinating afterword.  There’s also a useful glossary to help with some of the Norwegian and Sámi words used in the book.

The Witches of Vardø is a chilling story of prejudice, cruelty and ignorance with a great sense of time and place.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Zaffre via NetGalley.

In three words: Atmospheric, unsettling, assured

Try something similar: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Anya BergmanAbout the Author

Anya Bergman became interested in the witch trials of Vardø and the vivid folk tales of the north while living in Norway. Travelling to the Steilneset memorial, in which Louise Bourgeois and Peter Zumthor commemorated those persecuted as witches, she became fascinated by their stories. Now resident in Ireland, she is currently undertaking a PhD by Published Works at Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland where she also lectures as well as tutoring for Jericho Writers. She is working on her next novel, which unites the fates of two very different women against the tumultuous backdrop of the French Revolution. (Photo: Twitter profile/Bio: Author website)

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