Lilli's Question - by Michael O'Neill (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

In a Spanish park, a young German student asks an American seminarian a question that will haunt him for forty years: "Why be a priest?"

Lilli's Question follows Jim McGann from the streets of Madrid to the deserts of Nevada, from the parishes of San Francisco to the halls of Rome, as he struggles to reconcile faith, love, and conscience. He mourns his brother killed in Vietnam, confronts his clerical doubts, and discovers unanticipated healing in a passionate affair.

Through decades of intellectual inquiry, pastoral work, and personal loss, Jim rises in the Church but finally feels called to challenge one of its centuries-old policies, realizing that this final answer to Lilli's question "may do great good or may destroy me, possibly both."

"A profound novel about vocation and faith." - Kirkus Reviews

"The finest book I have read on sacrifice, vocation, and the courage it takes to reform long-held traditions." - Readers' Favorite

"This is an ideal novel for readers of historical fiction, spiritual fiction, and character-driven coming-of-age stories that stretch across a lifetime. Readers who admire Graham Greene's fascination with faith under pressure may find a gentler but no less searching companion here" - Literary Titan

"Author Michael O'Neill has written this book with exactly the right amount of emotion, conveying the vulnerability of his characters without allowing the moment to become overwrought. Lilli"s Question is a thoughtful, introspective novel that will absorb those readers fascinated by life's biggest questions." - Independent Book Review