"A History Of Loneliness" - by John Boyne Quiz

Answer: Being Irish

Like the author's first novel "The Thief of Time", this story zig-zags between distant past, present, recent past, distant past, and so forth. It starts in 2001 when Father Yates is visiting his sister and her teenaged son for dinner. His sister Hannah is only 43 yet she seems to be losing her mind.

She keeps calling out for her husband who died a year ago. Odran's nephew Jonas confides that she is behaving more and more oddly. Odran himself is a good man who tries to help people; the ideal priest, a trustworthy man.

Unfortunately, he now finds himself in an era where a lot of Catholic priests are proven far from trustworthy. This leads to growing prejudice, which affects him soon.

Answer: False

Odran and Hannah actually had a younger brother named Cathal. But their disturbed father drowned the poor boy (and then himself) in 1964 during a family seaside holiday. Nine-year-old Odran had stubbornly refused to accompany his father to the beach that morning, so Mr. Yates chose the younger boy instead. For years afterwards Odran wonders what would have happened if he had gone instead.

Answer: Wexford

When Odran arrives at his seminary in 1973, he is assigned a cell-mate, as all boys are - for the next seven years. Tom is very quiet and obviously unhappy about being forced to join the faith. Odran forms a friendship with Tom which lasts for almost 40 years, but Odran never suspects for a minute what sort of person Tom will turn into.

Answer: Drives Tom to the seminary on a tractor

Life at Conliffe College is not so bad. Odran was forced to join because of his widowed mother's strong religious beliefs. But he enjoys the lifestyle and believes he has found his vocation. He never questions that belief, until many years later. But Tom's father forces Tom to go.

The harsh farmer even drives his son to Conliffe on a tractor, of all things. Months later, Tom runs away. He keeps insisting his father was so brutal he never had any choice about joining the cloth. But his father returns him on that same tractor.

This time Odran's friend has bruises. Decades later, Tom claims the bruises were actually caused by someone else - a priest who crept into his room one night.

Answer: Both of these

Teenaged Odran, despite not being a priest yet, stays away from girls, until he meets the lovely short-skirted Katherine - and his shyness evaporates. Unfortunately, his mother walks in on them one day...and is more annoyed about the fact that Katherine is English.

She sends the local parish priest around to "encourage" Odran to stay away from Katherine. After Odran's meeting with the unpleasant Father, Odran's mother makes a decision. Her son is to be a priest! She can see it all now; it's like a sign from Heaven.

Answer: Norwegian

A priest having a relative with that name is rather ironic. Kristian meets Hannah when she works at the local bank. The two marry and have two boys, Aidan and Jonas. The family lives in Ireland, but the two boys move overseas after their parents die. The reason for the elder son Aidan's dislike of Ireland does not occur to his kindly uncle until many years have passed.

Answer: In her local church

Odran and Hannah's overly-pious mother has a stroke in 1992. She dies in a church, presumably happy in her surroundings. Tom Cardle comes to Dublin to support his friend in time of need. He kindly helps Odran with the funeral and the eulogy. Odran is grateful and brings his colleague back to his sister's house to meet the family. Little Aidan jumps at the chance to impress the visiting father with his tap-dancing and singing. Odran was originally going to put Cardle up for the night, but then Hannah invites her brother's friend to stay with her instead. No one notices how Cardle keeps looking at little Aidan. Odran never saw Aidan looking cheerful again.

Not for years does it occur to him what Cardle must have done to his poor little nephew that night.

Answer: False

For more than a quarter of a century Odran works at Tenure College, teaching English and tending to its library. He is happy there...until 2006 when the local Archbishop abruptly relocates him. Odran cannot understand! He has worked at his college for so long.

But the archbishop's mind is made up. He needs someone to fill in for Father Tom Cardle who, yet again, is being transferred to another parish. Odran cannot understand why his close friend never stays at the same parish for more than a year or two. Archbishop Cordington seems to be about to tell him, then he changes his mind because "it's a 'delicate matter'". Years later Odran is arguing with his former friend Cardle.

The latter claims parish life is very different to working at a school. So Odran is in no position to judge him for what he did to boys.

Answer: Three

In 1978 Odran is sent to Rome to complete his last year of study before his ordainment. The Irish College he stays in informs him he is to take on a special job inside the Vatican. He is to bring The Pope his supper each night, and breakfast in the morning.

It won't interfere with Odran's studies - but he will have to sleep at the palace, not the college. Pope Paul VI is very old and does not have much time for minor clerics like Odran. But Odran is befriended by a man named Albino Luciani...who unexpectedly becomes Pope a few months later after Paul dies of a heart attack. Even more unexpectedly, the new Pope (John Paul I) is only in office a month before dying of a heart attack too. (His successor John Paul II is luckier; living till 2005 despite being shot in 1981!) As it happens, Odran was supposed to be present the night his master died, but he was absent.

He has often wished for years he had been there. Then he would know if that kindly man really died of natural causes after all! To this day there are still a lot of (arguably justified) conspiracy theories about this Pope's death.

Answer: Two

Aidan and his younger brother Jonas were very fond of their uncle as little boys. Then something happened, and as time went by, the two boys didn't want to be around him anymore. Aidan never communicates with Odran from Norway and Jonas, a hugely successful yet controversial author, dislikes his uncle's profession. Hurt, Uncle Odran never understands why the boys shun him. Or perhaps, deep inside, he does.

Answer: Wandering the streets

Odran himself admits what he did would be considered stalking nowadays. In 1978 he has a major crush on an Italian woman who sells coffee. He frequently goes to her cafe to watch her, and discretely follows her home. He thinks she doesn't see him. But one night, when the woman goes out of her flat, he seizes his chance and ducks inside.

He locates her spare-key and lets himself in. He is so entranced to be in her bedroom he doesn't hear her (or her husband) return. The woman is furious, but also amused.

It turns out she knew he was following her for months. She allowed him to, for a bit of fun. Humiliated, Odran runs out. He wanders the streets of Rome until morning, lost (in every sense of the word). When he finally returns to his post outside The Pope's chamber, he is told the bad news: the Holy Father died of a heart attack the previous night.

Some shady papal staff speak to Odran. They don't believe his mumbled excuses about where he was. They warn him if he ever disputes the official cause of his master's death he will "be sorry".

Answer: He is arrested

Odran catches a train into Dublin to meet his sole relative in Ireland for lunch. Jonas is not the nicest of lunch companions and Odran still cannot understand why he dislikes priests so much. After Jonas and his uncle part company, Odran goes into a department store to buy some gloves. But the year is 2011, and the Irish general public are still reeling from some horrible revelations about the Catholic Church. Odran, although he has never harmed a soul in his life, is still a priest and wears his collar in public.

In the department store he comes across a little boy who's lost and crying for his mummy. It turns out his mother is just around the corner, but the sobbing toddler points to the street door. Odran, trying to do a good deed, takes the boy out of the shop to the nearest police station.

Then he wonders why people are suddenly screaming obscenities at him, a woman is accusing him of kidnapping her son, and why a policeman suddenly grabs him. At the police station, the sergeant eventually believes this was an unfortunate misunderstanding and lets poor Odran go. Nevertheless, he still acts as if the whole thing is poor Father Yates' fault simply because he is a priest. Odran yearns for the days when men of the cloth were not considered monsters.

Answer: True

A year after the misunderstanding with the little boy and his mother, Odran decides to visit Aidan Ramsfjeld without contacting the family first. He turns up in Norway uninvited. He is delighted to meet his niece-in-law and the children. Aidan is not pleased to see his uncle at first, but eventually they meet for a drink. Odran apologises profoundly. Father Tom Cardle was arrested years ago and numerous victims of his abuses came forward to testify against the swine. Odran finally guessed what his former friend must have done to his poor nephew all those years ago.

He asks Aidan about it directly, and Aidan confirms it. Odran apologises profoundly, but Aidan acknowledges his uncle wasn't to know. They're close again, for the first time in years.

Answer: 2013

There is a huge and furious public outcry when disgraced pedophile Father Tom Cardle is only sentenced to eight years. "He'll be out in four!" people complain, and one of Cardle's now-grown-up victims shouts in front of a TV Camera "GET THEM OUT!" - meaning the Irish church. That cry turns into a repeated condemnation of Catholic priests across Ireland.

Despite Odran's understandable fury, he offers to pick up his former friend Cardle who's being released from jail. Once the latter is in his allotted council flat, Odran confronts him about everything. Cardle is free, but bitter and almost crippled (other prisoners found out what he was in jail for), and looking considerably older than he really is. He gets no sympathy. Odran keeps pressing his former friend, demanding to know why he raped all those boys. Cardle keeps saying how difficult his father was, he was forced into the priesthood when he doesn't even believe in God, etc., etc. And really, it was the Catholic Church that ruined his life - so they're to blame for what he did to all those boys, not him. Absurd!

Odran and hundreds of other boys went through what Cardle did, and Odran points out THEY never behaved so horribly. Then Odran demands to know why Cardle violated Aidan. Cardle says Odran is as much to blame as he. What?! Cardle insists. Although Odran did not KNOW priests were sexually assaulting young boys, he suspected it for a long time. Did he not? Cardle can see the guilt in his eyes and his question is answered. He jeers "Pray for yourself, not me."
Odran keeps insisting what Cardle did was wrong, but to no avail. Cardle finally mutters "I have a history of loneliness, Odran. Don't you?"

Answer: Leaving the priesthood

Odran cannot deny it. Even though he has finally got his old job back at Tenure College, he is not happy. He feels guilty. Many boys have suffered at the hands of Cardle, and other horrible so-called men-of-God. Although Odran himself never did - he finds he cannot help feeling partly responsible.

Not just for the abuses, but the covering-up at the highest levels, including the Pope. (Odran is convinced the only non-corrupt Pope in history was murdered after only a month in office!) And he still wishes he had been present that night as he was supposed to be.

He could have done something! Just as he could have reported Cardle to the police. He wonders if he will ever be the same again.