A review by juliechristinejohnson
Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan

4.0

A beautifully written, intense novel. It's about a middle-aged priest serving in a parish in a struggling west Scotland town who (deliberately?) throws away all that he has built in a moment of recklessness. It's set in 2003- just after the US invasion of Iraq and travels back in time to 1968 London, when the main character was a student at Oxford and falls in love for the first, perhaps only, time.

It's sad, tragic, frustrating, fascinating- very quiet and deliberate, with an odd sense of hope and life despite its tragic twists.