Neil Mahoney

The Connection Neil Mahoney

This is a story about people and place. The place is Mission Hill, a neighborhood in the Roxbury section of Boston. To the people who come from Mission Hill, place is a very important part of their lives and their pride. The Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, also known as Mission Church, dominates the skyline and is a presence felt by all who live there or visit there. For most of the people from Mission Hill, that church has a deep impact on their lives and the way they live their lives. Most of them were baptized in that church. They went to the grammar school run by Mission Church, and most of them graduated from Mission Church High. The church does not play a role in the story but it is at the base point of the connection that each of them has to each other. This is a story about real people with real long and deep personal connections which they rely on to get them through the contingency of events that affect their lives. While it is a short novel, it is a long ride experiencing those connections that take some of them to extraordinary places and extraordinary challenges. In those challenges we see closely how their connection to each other is what gets them through.