The Altruist - A Novel / by Walter Keady. (Paperback)

Set in modern Ireland against a background of growing affluence and changing mores, The Altruist is the story of Eilis O'Connor, granddaughter of the eponymous protagonist of Walter Keady's previous novel, Mary McGreevy. Eilis is a feisty young woman, growing up in an Ireland that has changed significantly since the days of her grandmother's youth. But some things do not change: Eilis, too, flouts conventional mores, especially when she decides to have a baby out of wedlock like her grandmother before her. Family fireworks, courtroom drama, and romance ensue. Written with Keady's characteristic charm and graceful humor, The Altruist is a moving and forceful novel of the heart. As a former Roman Catholic priest I am always intrigued by ethical matters. So when Professor Mary Lyndon Shanley of Vassar College gave me a paper she had written on surrogate motherhood for the Princeton Law Review and asked me to read it "for style, " I was fascinated by the complexity of the legal and moral issues she so brilliantly elucidated. However, while the dense close reasoning in Professor Shanley's paper would be of enormous help to lawmakers and jurists toward making intelligent decisions in this most difficult arena, it was not easy layperson reading. Yet the subject of surrogate motherhood has attracted a great deal of media and popular attention, especially in light of several lurid legal cases that resulted in contradictory court decisions. One of the principal questions at issue was, and still is: since a surrogate mother contracts to bear a child for another, should that contract be legally binding on her in the event that she changes her mind and wants to keep the child she has borne? TheAltruist is an attempt to explore the issues and complexities of surrogate motherhood in the way that the novel is peculiarly fitted to do it: by delving into the needs, desires, loves, hates, fears, longings, and altruism of the affected persons. Reading The Altruist is like entering another world, where conviction and inspiration truly reign, and legacies only grow stronger with time.--A.S.