My Father’s House (The Rome Escape Line Novels)

From inside the Vatican, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty makes a daring attempt to smuggle thousands of innocents out of Nazi-occupied Rome in this World War II “literary thriller of the highest order” (The Guardian), the first in a series by New York Times bestselling author, Joseph O’Connor.

September 1943: German forces have Rome under their control. SS Commander Paul Hauptmann rules over the Eternal City with vicious efficiency. The war’s outcome is far from certain. Diplomats, refugees, Jews, and escaped Allied prisoners flee for protection into Vatican City, a neutral, independent state nestled in the city of Rome. A small band of unlikely friends led by a courageous Irish priest is drawn into deadly battle of wits with Hauptmann and his soldiers.

Suspenseful, beautifully written, and inspired by a true story, My Father’s House tells an unforgettable story of love, faith, sacrifice, and courage.

*The second book in the Rome Escape Line Trilogy, The Ghosts of Rome, is available now.*

Joseph O’Connor’s My Father’s House, the critically acclaimed first book in his Rome Escape Line Trilogy was a Washington Post Best Book of the Year and was a finalist for the Walter Scott Prize. Shadowplay was named Novel of the Year at the 2019 Irish Book Awards and was a finalist for the prestigious Costa Book Award. His novel Star of the Sea won France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, the Irish Post Award for Fiction, the Nielsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Hall of Fame Award, and the Prix Litteraire Zepter for European Novel of the Year. He is the author of fifteen novels and is the Inaugural Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.