Join us as we welcome author Jon Doyle who will be in conversation with Elaine Canning about his stunning debut novel, Communion.

Join us as we welcome author Jon Doyle to the shop. Jon will be in conversation with Elaine Canning about his stunning debut novel, Communion.

Just so we're clear, she said, I know the rules of confession. What I say cannot be repeated. Not to anyone...

When Mack O'Brien left his home in Port Talbot for the seminary as a teenager, he didn't imagine he'd be back a decade later, unordained and still at a loss as to what makes for a moral life. He takes a job as a security guard at the local steelworks and begins an uneasy transition into the world he once rejected. When the men of the steelworks organise an unprecedented strike in protest against job cuts, he sees no reason not to go along with it.

The last person Mack expects to see in the local club is Siwan Roderick - the woman who appeared out of the blue at the seminary one day to make a confession and swear him to secrecy. Mack kept his word. But as the day of the strike nears, and as he begins to fully understand what

Siwan is planning, Mack is forced to reckon with his loyalty to her and the question of whether an act of violence can ever be justified.

Gritty and luminous, intelligent and sincere, a radical and transgressive novel in which the profane, the political and the personal are entirely rooted in the sacred. Communion is both tender and confrontational, an immaculate debut with dirt under its fingernails - Colin Walsh, author of Kala

A book of rare grace and presence, Communion transported me from its opening pages. It is a deeply moving novel about faith, doubt and morality, held firm by a steady beat of love - Megan Hunter, author of Days of Light

A highly original book that strips back the traditional architecture of the novel until each paragraph arrives like a short, beautiful breath, and in the silences between, the true voices of Port Talbot are able to sing through. A thrilling evocation of a community - Andrew McMillan, author of Pity

A rare novel. Communion bears witness to quiet accumulating impacts, a tolling, calling out the fundamental question, what happens when the things at the centre of what we try to believe in gutter out, one by one? This is poignant, resounding writing. - Cynan Jones, author of Pulse

Electric... A wonderful, brilliant piece of work. Just brilliant. This is someone with a voice, with something to say, with a natural talent - Kasim Ali, author of Good Intentions

Jon Doyle is based in Port Talbot, South Wales. His work has appeared in Short Fiction, Hobart, Ploughshares Online, The Rumpus, 3:AM Magazine, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction among other places. Communion was selected as an Observer Best Debut Novel of 2026.

Elaine Canning is a writer, editor and public engagement specialist. Currently Head of Strategic Public and Cultural Engagement at Swansea University, she is Director of the International Dylan Thomas Prize, the Rhys Davies National Short Story Award, and the Cultural Institute.

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