An insightful and personal examination of Catholicism in Europe.For four years from 1990, Colm Toibin made a series of trips through Catholic Europe. The result is this beautifully wrought book. He shows the complications and contradictions of the Catholic Church, and tries to unravel how they in turn influence a country’s sense of nationalism. It is not quite a travelogue, nor is it autobiographical. Rather it is a work that tests both faith and the written word, a work that redefines what we have come to expect from non-fiction.