The Pilgrimage

This is a new book. Condition: Brand New.

An erotic nightmare of Catholic longing, guilt, and desire and a banned classic of modern Irish literature.

Wealthy and devout, Michael and Julia Glynn are the envy of their neighbors and the model Irish Catholic couple, bearing Michael's increasingly painful and crippling arthritis with stoicism. In hope of a miracle, their priest suggests a family pilgrimage to Lourdes. Yet these pious holiday plans are thrown into disarray when anonymous, obscene letters begin to arrive, full of terrible accusations.

Banned in Ireland on its first publication in 1961, Broderick's debut arrived 'like an incendiary device' (Sunday Independent). The Pilgrimage anticipated the deep shifts that would soon turn the country's theocratic society upside down. It is a darkly comic, blasphemous, and sexually charged chamber drama laying bare the hypocrisies of a small Irish town 'as watchful as the jungle', and teetering on the brink of catastrophe. In the words of Colm Tibn, in his foreword to this edition, The Pilgrimage 'cleared a space in the jungle so that its wildness could be more easily seen'.

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Paperback / softback
ISBN13: 9781946022950
Published: March 2025

Number of pages: 224
Width: 127 mm
Height: 216 mm
Depth: not specified

Publisher: McNally Jackson Books