Father Sweet

August 1, 2019
Martin's arresting first novel lambastes the complicity of the Canadian state, Canadian families, and the Catholic Church in hundreds of cases of sexual abuse during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1978, a wilderness-loving Boy Scout is growing up in a small hamlet in Eastern Ontario with his brother, Jamie. His life is shattered when the charming local priest, Father Sweet, grooms and then sexually assaults him on a camping trip. The narrative then leaps forward 25 years. While he continues to struggle to process his experiences and self-medicates with alcohol, he stumbles onto just how widespread his trauma is. Martin not only focuses on the cataclysmic effects of sexual abuse on a single person but also grapples with the shame of the church and a nation, especially over the shocking exploitation of indigenous children. Building from historical records, this gripping drama hammers home the horror. A deeply unsettling work that will make a lasting impact on readers, this novel is a reckoning with the horrendous lack of a just response to institutions that failed to protect the most vulnerable citizens.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)