The Faithful

The author of The Children Are Gone, Cavanaugh presents a novel that should be popular with readers who find the tale credible. Burdened by a topheavy cast and side plots, the story unfolds from the turn of the century onward. Louise Maguire, an Irish-born nun, meets Father Sean Regan on a boat sailing to New York, and he effects her introduction to P. Connolly Moore, a rags-to-riches widower. Moore finances Rosemoore, a select girls' boarding school, where Sister Louise reigns as principal over her young Catholic charges, Moore's daughters among them. Developments thereafter are not so interesting, focusing on accounts of how Irish Catholics gained political power as a defense against prevailing bigotry. In contrast, the fiction is sensationalized and suspect: Sister Louise and Father Regan fall in love but remain true to their vows; a secret drunk, Connolly causes a tragedy the ancient Greeks would recognize. And there are plenty more occurrences to keep the pot boiling. 50,000 first printing. (October 29)