Billy, Come Home

The slim, moving novel depicts the life of Billy Reilly, a schizophrenic man whose gentle nature and fragile psyche are no match for life in modern Dublin. It's bad enough that Billy is neglected by his parents, treated badly at the halfway house where he lives and marginalized or rejected by society in general. But when Billy is wrongly implicated in the brutal murder of a young vagrant woman, his life becomes a nightmare. His sister, Angela, is the only one who cares enough for Billy to help him have a life of his own, but she is overwhelmed by his worsening condition. Callaghan (The Visitors' Book ) paints a bleak picture of the effects of prejudice and discrimination on the mentally ill, simultaneously noting the difficulties even healthy people have in coping with daily life. Without becoming mawkish or preachy, Callaghan delivers an effective indictment of society's failure to care for a vulnerable minority. (Dec.)