THOMAS KENEALLY The Office of Innocence ***(*)

I read this by mistake, thinking it was Keneally's latest. But it's actually four years old. Anyway, I'm really glad I stumbled upon it, because it's very good.

It's about a young and naive Roman Catholic curate in Australia in 1942, when everyone's scared the country might fall to the Japanese. He falls (in a very chaste way) for a married woman who is subsequently murdered - which gets him examining his conscience and the behaviour of fellow Catholics.

It's almost a thriller, but definitely a thought-provoking book about conscience and courage, love and innocence, and the burden of knowing someone else's secrets - the burden of the confessional (hence the title).