Paperbacks

The Mass and Mary Brown by Anthea Dove, Columba Press £5.99. "My name is Mary Brown. My family is my life. My faith is my life. When the children were small, all of us, together with their father, would pray together each evening. But now I don't even talk to them about God any more, because they either laugh at me or become defensive because they think I'm disappointed in them." This little novel is about a grandmother and her experience of family and parish life. It is written "for the ordinary Catholic lay person faced with the difficulties of staying loyal in
today's church and today's society." The author is herself a grandmother "with a strong commitment to ecumenism and justice and peace".
The Gift of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels by Thomas Cahill, Lion £7.99. Cahill, author of a bestselling book about the Irish, argues here that the West's cultural heritage is rooted in the religious sensibilities of ancient Israel. Described as "an enthralling.story in the history of ideas" by the Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks.