Every Inch A Saint

“Clinch offers a novel that weaves multiple stories through an account of the real-life Eileen O’Connor (1892-1921), the Australian founder of Our Lady’s Nurses for the Poor…. Spiritual readers are likely to find great inspiration and value in this novel, which consistently illustrates Eileen’s grace and the strength of her conviction; in real life, she’s long been considered for possible sainthood.” —Kirkus Reviews

The true story, woven with fiction, of Eileen O’Connor—Australia’s saint-in-waiting

In this inspirational novel, a family traumatized by addiction and catastrophe discover their great-grandmother’s lost account of Australia’s saint-in-waiting—a severely disabled woman who barely survived childhood but defied the Catholic Church and provided free nursing care in Sydney’s slums—and miracles happen. With a dual timeline, novelist Kate Clinch weaves the story of Eileen O’Connor, whose cause for sainthood is currently active in Rome, with the lives of a fictional contemporary family a century after her death.

The backdrop is Sydney in the midst of World War I and the Spanish Flu. Eileen is crippled by tuberculosis, partial paralysis, and interminable pain. Her determination and faith that she is called to help others drives her to establish a private domiciliary nursing organisation and brings her into conflict with the Catholic hierarchy. A diverse array of colourful fictional characters and situations also then help bring to life this twentieth-century story of courage and resiliency. One of Eileen’s friends, believing her to be a living saint, records Eileen’s story, leaving it to be found like a lost artefact, in 2019.