The Pilgrimage

A brooding and beautifully observed short novel, an absolute masterclass in character study which I read with a mixture of awe and jealousy. Broderick's writing is fearless, unfussy and utterly ahead of the times. I wish I could write with this degree of intensity and calculated remove -- Jan Carson, author of 'The Raptures'
Pulsating with passion, parochialism, guilt and greed, this exposé of scandal and secrets is shocking and witty * Daily Mail *
A bleakly comic and often cruel evocation of a repressive Ireland * Irish Times *
I absolutely loved The Pilgrimage... Brilliant... A book about what it feels like to live with doubt and still keep going -- Orla Mackey, author of 'Mouthing'
A sour and lasting portrait of what boils beneath kept-up appearances * New York Times *
A taut stylish book that surely read like an incendiary device at the time... Broderick's tightly controlled style is awash with the sharp humour of recognition * Sunday Independent (Dublin) *
Fearless and frank and sometimes comic... Had The Pilgrimage been freely available in 1961... [it] would have filled a silence about homosexuality that was almost total -- Colm Tóibín
At its best, the novel's simmering moods and atmosphere of squandered potential and sexual deception recall Tennessee Williams -- Nicole Flattery * LRB *
Masterly... Ironic, sarcastic like Swift and Shaw, sentimental like The Playboy of the Western World -- Julian Green, author of 'Paris'