“In Helena, the play of words and the fireworks, the exquisite descriptions of landscapes, and even the finished portraits of the heroine, her husband, and her son, are always subordinate to the author’s broad vision of the mixed anguish and hope with which the world of Constantine’s time was filled.” —New York Herald Tribune “[Helena] may be read on two levels of appreciation: As bright entertainment, or as deceptively profound commentary. On both levels it’s a superlatively well done book.” —Chicago Tribune Evelyn Waugh, author of the internationally acclaimed bestseller Brideshead Revisited and one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, considered Helena to be perhaps his finest novel. Based on the life of St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine and finder of the true cross, this spiritual adventure brings to life the political intrigues of ancient Rome and the early years of Christianity.

Helena (Loyola Classics)

Literature & Fiction

George Weigel

WAUGH,EVELYN

Literary

Loyola Classics

“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.

The Edge of Sadness (Loyola Classics)

O'Connor, Edwin

United States

“A novel of sensitive dedication.” —The Atlantic Monthly“Rumer Godden deals precisely with the theme of the religious life . . . as representing ‘the heart of holiness of the Church.’ It is at once a life of great peace and often equally intense struggle.” —America magazineThis extraordinarily sensitive and insightful portrait of religious life centers on Philippa Talbot, a highly successful professional woman who leaves her life among the London elite to join a cloistered Benedictine community. In this gripping narrative of the crises surrounding the ancient Brede abbey, Rumer Godden penetrates to the mysterious, inner heart of a religious community—a place of complexity and conflict, as well as joy and love. It is a place where Philippa, to her own surprise and her friends’ astonishment, finds her life by losing it.

In This House of Brede

GODDEN, Rumer

The Francis of Assisi in these pages is a man of struggle and suffering, a man God-possessed.”—Saturday Review
“The writing . . . is direct and vigorous.”—Commonweal
“The novel is strong, deep, and moving. . . . a penetration into the mystery and wonder of life.”—San Francisco Chronicle
The protean Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis retells the story of the most beloved of saints—Francis of Assisi, who permanently changed the way people think about following God. Drawing on the traditional stories of the saint’s life, Kazantzakis infuses the tale with a fervent vision that is uniquely his own, highlighting the saint’s heroic single-mindedness in the face of extreme physical and spiritual suffering. He portrays the saint as a great lover and inspiring leader who embraced radical poverty in the face of many obstacles and temptations while achieving a way of life marked by epic generosity.

Saint Francis

Kazantzakis, Nikos

Genre Fiction

“It is fast-moving and often downright funny.”—New York Times “He has recaptured childish innocence and presented it with adult enlightenment—plus a touch of cynicism—yet never with irreverence.” —Book-of-the-Month Club News First confession and its terrors. Eighty-four first graders in a classroom ruled by just one nun. The agony and the ecstasy of Lent. The dubious honor of being declared the worst altar server ever. Dinah Shore and the Blessed Virgin haunting your dreams. This is Eddie Ryan’s world as he grows up in the intensely Catholic world of South-Side Chicago’s St. Bastion’s parish in the 1950s. In this classic coming-of-age novel, John Powers draws readers into Eddie Ryan’s world with deep affection and bittersweet humor.

The Last Catholic in America (Loyola Classics)

Powers, John R.

Contemporary

J. Blue is a young man who decides to take Christianity seriously, not as a chore but as a challenge. He spends his inherited wealth almost as soon as he gets it. He lives in a packing box on a New York City rooftop. He embraces the poor as his best friends and wisest companions, distrusts the promises of technology (except for the movies), and is fascinated by anything involving the wide expanse of God’s universe. He is the ultimate free spirit, it seems; but what is the source—and purpose—of his freedom? This novel about a contemporary St. Francis figure has delighted and inspired countless readers since it was first published in 1928.

Mr. Blue

Myles Connolly

John Breslin

“Hilarious, touching, beautiful . . .” —Detroit News“A totally enjoyable novel with at least one laugh on every page.” —Fresno Bee“. . . you’ll never forget it.” —Publishers Weekly Growing up on Chicago’s South Side in the 1960s, Eddie Ryan is learning a lot—and not just from the Brothers at his all-boys Catholic high school. Eddie’s world is populated by peculiar adults, oddball classmates, and puzzling girls—the greatest mystery of all. He takes it all in through the prism of his Catholic upbringing, which often deepens the mystery, but sometimes clarifies it, too. Entering Eddie Ryan’s world will delight not only readers who grew up there with him, but also those too young to remember. This new edition of Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? includes a new introduction as well as discussion questions designed to help deepen the reading experience for both individuals and reading groups.

Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? (Loyola Classics)

“A superior novel, intricately worked out at several levels of human and spiritual quest . . . beautiful and impassioned.”—Commonweal “A reading experience of real emotional intensity.”—The New York Times “A unique cloak-and-dagger drama of the human soul.”—Saturday Review The Devil's Advocate, Morris West's best-selling novel, is a deft exploration of the meaning of faith. In an impoverished village in southern Italy, the life and death of Giacamo Nerone has inspired talk of sainthood. Father Blaise Meredith, a dying English priest, is sent from the Vatican to investigate—and to try to untangle the web of facts, rumors, and outright lies that surround Nerone's life and death. With spiritual frailty as a backdrop, The Devil's Advocate reminds us how the power of goodness ultimately prevails over despair.

The Devil's Advocate (Loyola Classics)

WEST, MORRIS

“Mauriac’s best novel.”—Catholic World “A lucid and penetrating study . . . Mauriac proves himself as good a storyteller as he is a psychologist.”—The New York Times “A most admirable and exciting novel.”—New StatesmanThe masterpiece of one of the twentieth century’s greatest Catholic writers, Vipers’ Tangle tells the story of Monsieur Louis, an embittered aging lawyer who has spread his misery to his entire estranged family. Louis writes a journal to explain to them—and to himself—why his soul has been deformed, why his heart seems like a foul nest of twisted serpents. Mauriac’s novel masterfully explores the corruption caused by pride, avarice, and hatred, and its opposite—the divine grace that remains available to each of us until the very moment of our deaths. It is the unforgettable tale of the battle for one man’s soul.

Viper's Tangle (Loyola Classics)

Religion & Spirituality

Mauriac, François

"Mr. Horgan manages . . . to make the morning of life as pristine as the dawn of creation itself.”—New York Times
“A work of rare beauty . . . has a lyrical quality that is rare today.”—Best Sellers
“Mr. Horgan writes as a poet and as the biographer of us all.” —Book WeekRichard is a young boy growing up in turn-of-the-century upstate New York, sheltered in a loving Catholic family. His happy world consists largely of illusions. These are shattered as Richard learns about “things as they are”—a remorseless succession of encounters with the casual brutality of schoolboys, the faithlessness of adults, the silence of God, and the cruelty in his own heart. Yet Paul Horgan finds courage and beauty in the ruins of Richard’s dream world. Hope is also part of “things as they are,” and Horgan’s subtle, powerful vision makes this classic tale of lost innocence a novel that resonates deeply in the soul.

Things as They Are (Loyola Classics)

HORGAN, Paul

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