A Son Called Gabriel

By Damian McNicholl
ISBN: 1-59315-018-0

A Literary Review, by Marylin Houle

Gabriel Harkins had always been different from the other boys: while they played football at recess, Gabriel played Jail with the girls.

He was singled out, growing up, as the sensitive one. The book smart one.
He was bullied at school for being the pansy, and had always felt he was a disappointment to his father - a real man.

Growing up in an Irish Catholic household, Gabriel struggled to fit in.

"You're just like your uncle Brendan," the family would always say.

He did not know his uncle Brendan, the priest who'd gone away to do missionary work in Africa, though he did know that whenever the subject of his uncle came up, the family seemed to become very secretive.

But whatever secrets his family was keeping from him, Gabriel was harboring his own.

Whatever the reasons that Gabriel seemed to be so different, paled in comparison to the differences within himself.

A Son Called Gabriel is about the struggles of a boy who is different than everyone else, and a disappointment to his family.

Damian McNicholl does a marvelous job telling this heartbreaking story of a boy fighting against himself - so good that you will not be able to put it down.

A Son Called Gabriel will be released on June 2004.

You can purchase a copy at Amazon.ca