My Father’s House

Rome, September 1943. After German forces occupy the city, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty uses the fragile protection of Vatican neutrality to organise a clandestine escape line. The group he calls the Choir brings together priests, diplomats, aristocrats, soldiers and civilians who hide escaped Allied prisoners, Jewish fugitives and opponents of fascism in safe houses across Rome. Every journey beyond the Vatican walls risks surveillance, betrayal and arrest.

Gestapo officer Paul Hauptmann begins mapping the network and tightening control over the occupied city. As Christmas approaches, O’Flaherty and his companions prepare an operation that demands careful timing and absolute trust from people who have different motives for resisting. The novel is rooted in the real work of the Irish priest and his collaborators, but uses multiple fictional voices to examine fear, loyalty, faith and the compromises required to save lives under occupation.