38 years old and single, Bartholomew Neil has only four things in his life: his mother, the library, going to mass on Saturdays, and the family friend Father McNamee. His mom gets cancer and dies. Bartolomew finds himself lost. Meanwhile, Father McNamee struggles with his vocation. Together, the two men set out to find answers -- including Bartholomew's missing dad. Along the way, they interact with quirky, mysterious characters, among them two grief therapists who could mean trouble, a very foul-mouthed therapy groupmate grieving over a cat, and his unsmiling librarian sister (the groupmate's, not the cat's) who might just help Bartholomew find his way among the bookshelves in his heart. Several other compelling figures populate the story: the actor Richard Gere (or his ghost), the Dalai Lama, various types of aliens, the people of Montreal, and more cats.
The major characters grapple with difficult questions of family life, trauma, ethics, and faith. To deal with his doubts, Bartholomew tries to speak with God while seeking help from the humans around him. The novel's author challenges us with the chiaroscuro of everyday life, inviting us to connect with personas who struggle with evil and good, but who try to not give up on their dignity.
The novel transmits positive human values while serving a remarkable dose of colourful language and potentially disturbing moral problems. It would be helpful for readers to accompany this book with a reading on some fundamentals of ethics, like The Problem of Pain by CS Lewis, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, or Made for Freedom by Jutta Burggraf. Those interested in Catholic teaching about Bartholomew's questions could take a look at the web pages of The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catholic Answers, and Jason & Crystalina Evert.