An Honorable Profession

John L'Heureux is one of our most authoritative and compelling novelists, and An Honorable Profession, a New York Times Notable Book, is a splendid novel realized superbly well (Newark Star-Ledger) about an ordinary New England school where a young English teacher's life is about to undergo the most serious of tests. Miles Bannon works hard and strives to be fair; he enjoys his popularity with students -- a bit too much, sometimes -- but overall he is a good man. When he witnesses a group of students picking on one boy in the shower after football practice, he is suddenly forced to balance his responsibility for the situation with the unexpectedly intimate glimpse he now has of them. And when the victim begins to cling to him in the face of his own father's rejection, Miles finds it perhaps too welcome a feeling. Then comes an accusation of impropriety that will destroy his career -- and transform his life, and who he thought he was, forever. An Honorable Profession is ... about survival both personal and professional, not merely that but survival with dignity and self-respect. -- Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World A deeply ambitious novelist ... who isn't afraid of dealing with dark themes and what it means to be fully human. -- Robert Ward, The New York Times Book Review