Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Three intertwining voices span the twentieth century to tell the unknown story of the Jews in Ireland. A heartbreaking portrait of what it means to belong, and how storytelling can redeem us all.
At the start of the twentieth century, a young girl and her family emigrate from Lithuania in search of a better life in America, only to land on the Emerald Isle instead. In 1958, a mute Jewish boy locked away in a mental institution outside of Dublin forms an unlikely friendship with a man consumed by the story of the love he lost nearly two decades earlier. And in present-day London, an Irish journalist is forced to confront her conflicting notions of identity and family when her Jewish boyfriend asks her to make a true leap of faith. These three arcs, which span generations and intertwine in revelatory ways, come together to tell the haunting story of Ireland’s all-but-forgotten Jewish community. Ruth Gilligan’s beautiful and heartbreaking Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan explores the question of just how far we will go to understand who we really are, and to feel at home in the world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gilligan makes a stellar U.S. debut with this wistful and lyrical multigenerational tale linking the struggles of two immigrant Jewish families in Dublin with an Irish Catholic woman's complicated relationship with her Jewish lover. The book is narrated by the three central characters: Ruth, who emigrates with her family from Lithuania in 1901 and winds up in Cork; Shem, struck mute after discovering his adored mother's shocking secret, and then institutionalized in 1958; and Aisling, a journalist expat in London in 2011 who must decide whether to convert to Judaism to marry boyfriend Noah. These characters long for acceptance and freedom within the rigid strictures of culture and religion. Gilligan weaves a mesmerizing blend of plot and character while exploring themes of assimilation and displacement, suggesting what binds us all is storytelling; a book on Jewish conversion links Aisling and Sham, while Ruth, as a midwife, reprises her aspiring playwright father's "forgotten ideas" and "all the little Irish snippets" of her youth.
Customer Reviews
A Frustrating End
From the outset, the reader knows the lives of the three character are intertwined. The story unfolds little by little, allowing the reader to start finding the thread slowly, winding it round and round until it begins to unspool. Fascinating story, well-drawn characters.