Susan Howatch
ABSOLUTE
TRUTHS
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1995
Copyright © Leaftree Ltd 1995
The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780006496885
Ebook Edition © MAY 2012 ISBN: 9780007396375 Version: 2017-05-04
‘A tour de force … Susan Howatch has been likened to a twentieth-century version of Trollope. To make such a comparison is to fail to do her justice’
Church of England. Newspaper
‘Howatch writes thrillers of the heart and mind … everything in a Howatch novel cuts close to the bone and is of vital concern’
New Woman
‘Riveting … extremely moving and often very funny … She is a deft storyteller, and her writing has depth, grace and pace’
Sunday Times
‘She is writing for anyone who can recognise that mysterious gift of the true storyteller’
Daily Telegraph
‘One of the most original novelists writing today’
Cosmopolitan
‘The best female writer in Britain today’
Birmingham Evening Mail
This book is dedicated to all my friends among the clergy of the Anglican Communion (and in particular the Church of England) with thanks for their support and encouragement. My special thanks also goes to Alex Wedderspoon for his great sermon preached in Guildford Cathedral in 1987 on the eighth chapter of St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, verse twenty-eight.
Contents
PART ONE: TRADITION AND CERTAINTY
PART THREE: PARADOX AND AMBIGUITY