Mystical Paths - Hardcover

Howatch, Susan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002239507 ISBN 13: 9780002239509

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1992

Synopsis

Nicholas Darrow, a strong-willed and independent young man, has grown up under the shadow of the Church of England and the loving but watchful eye of his father, an Anglican priest. Like his father, he has both a gift and a burden in the form of psychic abilities. Although his father warns him to nurture his special powers with care, Nicholas can see no harm in the occasional dazzling psychic flourish until one results in a friend s attempted suicide.Now, staggering under the weight of remorse, horrified by the dangerous edge of his powers, Nicholas moves toward the brink of emotional collapse. When a terrifying vision suggests to him that he might literally be possessed, he must at last begin to face the truth of his past and, in particular, of his relationship with his father to find the one path that may lead him out of the seemingly impenetrable darkness that engulfs him.A compelling mix of psychology and theology, this suspenseful novel will leave you breathless."

About this title

About the Author

Susan Howatch was born in Surrey. After getting a degree in law, she emigrated to America, where she married, had a daughter, and embarked on a career as a writer. When she eventually left the United States, she lived in the Republic of Ireland for four years before returning to England. She spent time in Salisbury—which was the inspiration for her Starbridge sequence of novels—and now lives in London.

From Kirkus Reviews

The air is thick with incense and mysteries (both secular and non) in this fifth smashing novel in Howatch's High Church series (Spontaneous Risks, 1990, etc.). Whoever would have thought that she could turn 20th-century theology into bestsellerdom? But she's done it again, this time reminding us that she's a mistress of the generational novel as well--because, here, the sons of heroes (actually, psychically wounded antiheroes, scrambling back to God) from former volumes step up to, well, the altar. It doesn't take 25-year-old Nick Darrow long to get into deep spiritual trouble here; after all, he's not only psychically touched (like his 88-year-old father, Jon, from Glamorous Powers) but young, cocky, impatient, sexually hyperactive--and, to make matters worse, it's 1968. On the eve of Nick's ordination, a debutante friend convinces him to look into the death of Christian Aysgarth, a brilliant Oxford don who died suddenly in a boating accident, leaving behind a wife agonized with guilt because she thinks it was suicide. So, Nick to the rescue, with a botched exorcism and not-so-botched seduction of the grieving widow. Such occurrences, along with Nick's double life as a Casanova among working girls, make him dimly aware that his personality is frayed, but he can't open up to his saintly father for fear that the beloved old guy will die of horror. Nick plunges on, then, eventually getting so obsessed with the Aysgarth affair that he believes himself possessed by the dead man. That's when Father Lewis Hall shows up in his groovy white VW to take Nick by the hand and lead him to the light. Along the way back, Christian's death is resolved in a spiffy little climax that includes an attempted murder, an exorcism conducted--quite successfully this time--by Nick, and a spiritual healing between Nick and his father. If only spiritual guides showed up like fairy godmothers in real life! Howatch even brings psychological and theological meaning to Nick's salvation. A sure-fire hit. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0002239507
• ISBN 13: 9780002239509
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 575