The Variations: A Novel

A compelling sympathy of the faiths that fill the gap between who we set out to be and who we ultimately become. A powerful debut novel about a priest who has lost his church his mentor and most upsetting his ability to pray. How can Father Dominic protect or guide his parish when everything he loves falls away? How can he counsel Dolores a troubled teenager prone to emotional panic and spiritual monomania? Or James a promising African American pianist struggling to realize his artistic ambitions by bringing his own voice to a piece that has been played by the worlds most brilliant pianists Bachs Goldberg Variations.. Into this malaise comes Andrea a sophisticated New York editor attracted at first by Doms blog and then by the man himself. Doms journey from the cloth into the secular world will offer carnal knowledge but also something deeper a more resistant knowledge as life fails to offer happiness or redemption. In prose both searching and muscular John Donatichs The Variations has located the right metaphor for our spiritual crisis in this story of one mans spiritual disillusion and ache for self-knowledge.