Book excerpt: Confessions of an Alien is a story about alienation. The narrator, Josh Carew, is an alien in his homeland, Ireland. He is exiled by choice to various parts of the former British Empire, seeking to come to terms with the dilemmas in his life. On his return to Ireland, he describes his moral distress with a frankness and honesty that may shock his readers. He is disenchanted with politics and the galloping secularisation, which he views as the ruination of the country. Being of old Puritan stock, he asserts that only righteousness can uplift the nation. He cannot lie, nor can he accommodate to the mindset of the ungodly and materialistic people who rule the world. He is a pilgrim in an alien land and his confessions describe the dark night of his soul. His musings are a frontal assault on the Modern World and on the ghastly state that he refers to as the 'New Ireland'. Confessions of an Alien is partly a tale of adventure and partly a series of confessions. The story and the confessions are interwoven in a seamless narrative. The frank confessions focus on social, religious, and political issues. Josh sees himself as a moral man who knows the difference between right and wrong. He is shocked to find that the line between right and wrong has disappeared in the New Ireland. He sees a nation that has lost its values and he blames it on rampant greed, corruption, galloping secularism and neo-liberalism. Some readers may not like his rants and internal monologues. His views will probably offend secularists, politicians, churchmen, feminists, and media people. Josh could not care less. He speaks his mind with the forthrightness of an Old Testament prophet.