Book: The Variations

YaleNews features works recently or soon to be published by members of the University community. Descriptions are based on material provided by the publishers. Authors of new books may forward publishers’ book descriptions to us by email.

The Variations: A Novel

John Donatich, director of Yale University Press

(St. Martin’s Griffin)

“The Variations” is a debut novel about a priest, Father Dominic, who has lost his church, his mentor, and his ability to pray. Characters include Dolores, a troubled teenager prone to emotional panic and spiritual monomania, and James, a promising African-American pianist, struggling to realize his artistic ambitions by bringing his own voice to a piece that has been played by the world’s most brilliant pianists, Bach’s “Goldberg Variations.”

Another character in the book is Andrea, a sophisticated New York editor, who becomes attracted by Father Dominic’s blog and then by the man himself. Father Dominic’s journey from the cloth into the secular world will offer carnal knowledge, but also something deeper, a more resistant knowledge as life fails to offer happiness or redemption. “The Variations” is the story of one man’s spiritual disillusion and need for self-knowledge.