First there was John Patrick Stanley’s dazzling play “Doubt,” which the Missus and I were lucky enough to see some years ago in a fabulous Broadway production featuring Cherry Jones and Brian F. O’Byrne.

It was the ultimate on-the-one-hand/on-the-other-hand experience, a humbling demonstration of how difficult it is to find the truth in complicated circumstances.

Now comes “Faith,” Jennifer Haigh’s novel described in a Wall Street Journal review this way:

Jennifer Haigh’s fourth novel, “Faith,” is a compassionate portrayal of a Boston priest who has been accused of molesting an 8-year-old boy. The truth of the accusation is unclear until the end, but even so, the premise is a risky one. Given the hair-raising revelations of the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal, why would anybody want to read a seeming apologia for the priesthood?

But Ms. Haigh—through sleight of hand, a compelling array of characters and top-flight writing—is remarkably successful in making us want to read on. “Faith” is so emotionally rich, and its story so deftly delivered, that we’re absorbed even as the novel leaves lingering doubts whether Ms. Haigh has truly confronted the blight of clerical abuse.

Oops. There’s that doubt again.

Regardless, this sounds like an excellent bookend to John Patrick Stanley’s exquisite exercise in ambiguity.