The Edge of Sadness

Edwin O'Connor

Jun 2010 · Loyola Press

About this ebook

"A realistic Christian novel of hope in a non-Christian age."-New England Quarterly "A deeply felt and eloquently expressed work . . . A quiet, gentle novel of considerable insight and charm . . ."-Library Journal "O'Connor succeeds in delineating poignantly the overwhelming spiritual storms of the soul which assail the conscientious clergyman."-The Christian Century Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction In this moving novel, Father Hugh Kennedy, a recovering alcoholic, returns to Boston to repair his damaged priesthood. There he is drawn into the unruly world of the Carmodys, a sprawling, prosperous Irish family teeming with passion and riddled with secrets. The story of this entanglement is a beautifully rendered tale of grace and renewal, of friendship and longing, of loneliness and spiritual aridity giving way to hope.

About the author

Edwin O'Connor (1918ndash;1968) is best known for The Last Hurrah (1956), an acclaimed novel of Boston politics, but many critics regard The Edge of Sadness (1961) as his finest work. The Edge of Sadness was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. Ron Hansen was born in Omaha Nebraska in 1947.He received a BA degree in English from Creighton University in Nebraska in 1970. He is the author of more than 20 books, stories, and anthologies. He received the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters for his book Nebraska, a collection of short fiction, in 1989. Some of his other works include Mariette in Ecstasy; the children's book, The Shadowmaker; Desperadoes; the Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which won the John Edgar Wideman Award in 1984; and the novel Atticus, a suspenseful murder mystery detailing a father's fierce love for his son. Atticus was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1996. Among the anthologies written by Hansen are The Sun So Hot I Froze To Death, Can I Just Sit Here For A While?, and True Romance. His short stories, with titles ranging from "His Dog" to "Playland," have appeared in the Stanford Alumni Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, the Iowa Review, Esquire, and many others. Besides holding Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, Hansen has received a Lyndhurst Foundation Grant and is a fellow of the University of Michigan Society of Fellows. Hansen has also held the position of Gerald Manley Hopkins S.J. Professor of Arts and Humanities at Santa Clara University. In May 2006 he was inducted into the College of Fellows at Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology. Also in that year The Assasination of Jesse James was adapted for the screen. In 2009 Mariette In Ecstasy was adapted for the stage at Lifetime Theater in Chicago. Amy Welborn is the general editor of Loyola Classics, a series of new editions of the some of the most distinguished Catholic novels of the twentieth century. She is the author of The Words We Pray, Loyola Kids Book of Heroes, Loyola Kids Book of Saints (Loyla Press), De-Coding Da Vinci, and the Prove It! series of apologetics books for youth (Our Sunday Visitor). Amy and her family live in Birmingham, Alabama.