THE CELIBATE

 

After suffering a nervous collapse while serving at the altar, a young ordinand is sent to London for psychiatric counselling, where he descends into an unfamiliar world of outcasts, hustlers, rent boys, religious fundamentalists, and Aids patients. In deepening despair, he starts picking up male hustlers and takes a job in London leading walking tours through the haunts of Jack the Ripper. As the past and present come full circle, he eventually comes to understand the true meaning of passion.
340 pages, paperback