The Final Retreat: A Novel

I must first, for reasons of transparency, state that the author's words of commendation appear on a recent book I wrote, so I wanted to make that clear and head off any suggestions this is a "mutual endorsement society" of two! OK: that is done! This book fully deserves the following words even if I had never met the author, or if he had never read "Queer and Catholic."This is an incredibly powerful book, it really is. It explores themes of lust and addiction linked to self-loathing in a quite incredible way. Stephen Hough writes with both great poetic beauty at times and also with total gritty realism. He knows his main protagonist's inner, and outer world and writes with such utter conviction. But, this is also a book of faith in the unconditional acceptance of gospel love. The tragedies and shortcomings are all of our own makings...both institutionally and individually but waiting there, sometimes seeming out of reach, is another way that says..."it is all OK. Just come as you are." I read this almost in one sitting. I'll be buying it for many others. It is a very fine debut indeed!!!

The person who tells the story is a Catholic priest who has lost his faith but sticks to the position for the salary and comfort, rather than try to earn an honest living (Section 36). He needs the salary because he spends a lot of money on prostitutes. He doesn't actually want a home and a relationship (26). The fact that he is gay is almost irrelevant: it certainly wouldn't stop him living with a partner and working at an ordinary job. No-one in the book can have felt a moment's regret at his death; and nor did this reader. Well enough written, but worth it?

Beautifully published and one of the few books you do not want a Kindle version.An excoriating indictment of the cruelty meeted out by the Roman Catholic Church to gay men.

A sophisticated and deeply challenging first novel by Stephen Hough. I found it deeply moving and a very authentic account of the hidden lives led behind the veneer of religion and respectability. An important work.

really well-written - painful to read but very insightful - a truly wonderful book

Nothing not to like

beautifully bound and printed - but oh so slender !

Good story ... well researched

Moving in a way

Brilliant novel! The private, sad world of a failed priest keeping a notebook on a retreat, thinking over a wasted life and remembering his sexual encounters with rent boys. The way it goes between the two worlds of religion and sex and the way it builds up to a climax, and then, on the last page, the final devastating revelation, is masterful. Now I need to check out his CDs. And I need to read it again!

POWERFUL AND VERY TOPICAL DEPICTION OF THE MODERN CLERICAL LIFE.

The prose is so dense in a look-at-my-vocabulary style that the book is almost unreadable.

An interesting take on life