The leavetaking

A day, crucial and cathartic, in the life of a young Catholic schoolteacher who has returned to Ireland after a year's sabbatical in London, where he married an American divorcee. As a result he now faces certain dismissal by the school authorities. Moving from earliest memories of both the man and the woman, the novel recreates their breaking of the shackles of guilt and duty into acceptance of a fulfilling adult love.