Absolute Truths
About this audiobook
It is 1965, and Charles Ashworth has attained the plum position of bishop of Starbridge, an honor that keeps him in a heady whirl of activity that would exhaust the most seasoned corporate executive. With the invaluable support of his minions and his attractive, unsinkable wife, Ashworth stands against the amorality and decadence of the age—"Anti-Sex Ashworth." He slays his opponents by being a tough, efficient, confident churchman, the torments of his past long since dead and buried.
But when Ashworth's beloved wife dies, a profound crisis of his faith begins unexpectedly and with brutal force. As bereavement overwhelms his spiritual equilibrium, suddenly Ashworth finds himself staring into the chasm of all the lies he's been telling himself for years: about his marriage, his children, even his views on the church. And as he suspects his old nemesis and dean, Neville Aysgarth, of drinking too much, of financial chicanery, of—God forbid—having an affair, Ashworth discovers to his horror that he is tempted to commit the very acts that he has so publicly denounced.
Spiraling downwards, Ashworth knows he must find his way out of the maze of his own psyche. In doing so, he will face the most difficult spiritual test of his life: to acknowledge the absolute truths—both good and bad—that have shaped his past, and that may be the only keys to his future.
About the author
Susan Howatch is a British novelist who has penned bestselling mysteries, family sagas, and other novels. Howatch was born in Surrey, England. She began writing as a teen and published her first book when she moved to the United States in 1964. Howatch found global success first with her five sagas and then with her novels about the Church of England in the twentieth century. She has now returned to live in Surrey.
Simon Vance is a critically acclaimed narrator who has recorded over eight hundred audiobooks and has received over fifty Earphones Awards. A twelve-time Audie Award winner and frequent finalist, he has been named an AudioFile Golden Voice, an AudioFile Best Voice, and the first Booklist Voice of Choice. A former BBC Radio presenter and newsreader in London, he currently lives in California, where he also pursues stage and television acting.
