'Communion': Jon Doyle in conversation with Elaine Canning

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.

About the author...
Jon Doyle is a writer based in Port Talbot, South Wales. He was part of Literature Wales' Representing Wales scheme in 2022/23, and won the Writers & Artists Working-Class Writers' Prize 2023. He holds a BSc and MRes in Zoology and MA in Creative Writing from Cardiff University, and a PhD in Creative Writing from Swansea University. His work has appeared in Short Fiction, Hobart, Ploughshares Online, The Rumpus, 3:AM Magazine, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction among other places. He has been named as one of the Observer's debut novelists of the year 2026. Communion is his first novel.

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*Please note: Event delivered in English.

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

Pan adawodd Mack O'Brien ei gartref ym Mhort Talbot i fynd i goleg offeiriadol yn ei arddegau, nid oedd yn dychmygu y byddai yn ôl ddegawd yn ddiweddarach, heb ei ordeinio ac yn ansicr o hyd am yr hyn sy'n gyfystyr â bywyd moesol. Mae'n derbyn swydd fel gard diogelwch yn y gwaith dur lleol ac yn dechrau'r broses anodd o bontio i'r byd roedd wedi’i wrthod gynt. Pan fo dynion y gwaith dur yn trefnu streic ddigynsail i brotestio yn erbyn toriadau swyddi, nid yw'n gweld rheswm dros beidio ag ymuno â nhw.

Y person olaf mae Mack yn disgwyl ei weld yn y clwb lleol yw Siwan Roderick - y fenyw a ymddangosodd yn annisgwyl un diwrnod yn y coleg offeiriadol i wneud ei chyffes a'i roi e ar ei lw i gadw cyfrinach. Gwnaeth Mack gadw at ei air. Ond wrth i ddiwrnod y streic agosáu, ac wrth iddo ddechrau deall yn llwyr yr hyn y mae Siwan yn ei gynllunio, mae Mack yn cael ei orfodi i gwestiynu ei ffyddlondeb iddi a holi a oes modd cyfiawnhau gweithred o drais byth.

Am y awdwr...
Mae Jon Doyle yn awdur sy'n byw ym Mhort Talbot, de Cymru. Bu'n rhan o gynllun Cynrychioli Cymru Llenyddiaeth Cymru yn 2022/23, ac enillodd Wobr Awduron ac Artistiaid Dosbarth Gweithiol 2023. Mae ganddo raddau BSc ac MRes mewn Sŵoleg ac MA mewn Ysgrifennu Creadigol o Brifysgol Caerdydd, a PhD mewn Ysgrifennu Creadigol o Brifysgol Abertawe. Mae ei waith wedi ymddangos yn Short Fiction, Hobart, Ploughshares Online, The Rumpus, 3:AM Magazine, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction yn ogystal â lleoedd eraill. Cafodd ei enwi ymhlith nofelwyr newydd y flwyddyn 2026 gan The Observer. Communion yw ei nofel gyntaf.

Mewn partneriaeth ag Siop Lyfrau Cover to Cover a Atlantic Books
*Sylwch: Cyflwynwyd y digwyddiad yn Saesneg.