My Father's House by Joseph O'Connor

 My Father’s House (Rome Escape Line Trilogy #1) by Joseph O’Connor

 

276 pages

Publisher: Harvill Secker

Pub. Date: Jan 2023

 

Blurb

From the best-selling author of Star of the Sea, a WWII-era “great escape” novel set in the Vatican

September 1943: German forces occupy Rome. Gestapo boss Obersturmbannführer Paul Hauptmann rules with terror. Hunger is widespread. Rumors 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.

Book 1 in the Rome Escape Line Trilogy, My Father’s House is a powerful, heartbreaking literary thriller based on the true story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, who risked his life to smuggle thousands of Jews and escaped Allied prisoners out of Italy under the nose of his Nazi nemesis. A deadly high-stakes battle of wits ensues in this astonishing, unforgettable story of love, faith and sacrifice, exploring what it means to be truly human in the most extreme circumstances.

 

Review

I must start this review with a confession. I knew the story I was about to start reading was based on real events and that knowledge made me nervous. So I googled Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty first because I had to know whether or not he survived the war, just to prepare myself for the worst in case he didn’t.

Revealing here that my search told me he lived until 1963 is not a spoiler so I don’t mind sharing the fact. I’m sure that many readers—Irish people and history buffs for starters—will be well aware of the man and his brave deeds before picking up this book. It is far more important to also let you know that my prior knowledge did nothing to lessen the relentless tension resulting from O’Flaherty’s Christmas Eve forbidden forage into Rome.

I’ve decided not to go into the story details here. The blurb gives a far better summary of what this story is about than I could put together. I will therefore ‘limit’ myself to how I experienced the story and my thoughts while reading.

It’s hard to pigeonhole this book. While the quality of the writing marks it as a literary work, it read very much like a thriller. There was so much tension in this story. It isn’t lack of fear that makes people brave. It is pushing ahead despite a full awareness of the risks involved that turns ordinary people courageous.

Monsignor O’Flaherty and his Choir of co-conspirators weren’t trained professionals. Nothing in their lives had prepared them for the act of standing up to an oppressor without mercy or humanity. They were pushed into action by their inability to see the needless and cruel suffering of others. Such acts of courage take my breath away and despite already knowing that all would be well in the end, my heart beat faster and my nerves spiked as the dangers increased. The fact that the members of the choir were all too aware of the risk they took, and of the almost unimaginable consequences should they be caught, only made my anxiety worse and my reading experience more intense.

I appreciated that the story was told from several perspectives. While, for obvious reasons, a lot of attention is fixed on O’Flaherty and his thoughts and actions, the contributions from the members of the Choir he assembled give us a fuller idea both of who the Monsignor was and of the varied and fascinating composition of their group. The fact that most of those contributions were dated decades after the war had ended also reassured me that whatever might happen next, the characters I grew to care for more with every passing page, would survive the ‘adventure’ too.

While the book gives voice to the thoughts of O’Flaherty and several of his allies, we also get glimpses into the head of his main opponent, Obersturmbahnführer Paul Hauptmann. As is so often the case when it comes to evil, the most shocking thing about his sections wasn’t his enthusiasm when it came to trying to stay in Hitler’s good books and inflicting pain and death on those he saw as his enemies, but the moments in which he seemed almost normal. It’s hard to imagine evil-personified as also being a loving husband and father, as a person who appreciates art and history. I almost didn’t want to read those pages. It was so much easier to imagine him as pure evil, without any redeeming qualities.

Of course, the reverse is true, too. While there is no doubt that O’Flaherty and the members of his Choir were good people—the best of us even—the story showed them as only too human, with doubts, fears, and moments in which their thoughts weren’t all that loving or even ‘Christian’. All of which added to the realism of this story and all of which will mean that these characters and their acts will stay with me that much longer.

If I have a quibble, it is minor.

The descriptions in this book are gorgeous and vivid. They are also long and ever-present. There was a moment or two, especially during the breathtaking quest on Christmas Eve that such descriptions pulled me out of the tension for a moment or two. Then again, maybe that was just as well. Besides, while this is certainly a thrilling story, it is not a typical thriller so there is no reason why it should follow genre requirements connected to such stories.

Overall, My Father’s House is a fascinating, at times heart-stopping, and gorgeously written story about courage in the face of despair. It is also a timely reminder that even when the world seems to be at its darkest, there are always those who are willing to risk all. Not for personal gain or fame but simply because it’s the right thing to do.