The grace and beauty of the bird in Ruth Gilligan's title is aptly reflected in her debut novel. The intricate plot of Nine Folds Makes a Paper Swan effortlessly weaves the experiences of three turbulent generations in Ireland, while Gilligan lights up the world around them in breathtaking language and colorful imagery.
In 1901, Ruth Greenberg and her family are bound for America from Lithuania, but their boat ends up on the Emerald Isle. Despite her mother's protests and disdain for Ireland, Ruth embraces the new land as her home, gathering its stories and folklore along the way.
In 1958, Shem Sweeney is mute--after uncharacteristically skipping school one day, he observed a horror so great it stole his voice. His rabbi has taught Shem that slander is evil, so his fear of revealing the terrible secret silences the boy at his bar mitzvah. When his father, humiliated by Shem's behavior, tries unsuccessfully to cure his son with both medical and psychological doctors, he gives up and institutionalizes Shem. In the hellish asylum, Shem develops an unlikely friendship with Alf, the only other Jewish inmate, as he records the story of the older man's lost love.
In the present day, Aisling Creedon is an Irish Catholic in love with a British Jew. Secretly she's been considering converting to Judaism; she's even staying in London rather than going home to Ireland for Christmas with her family. But when her partner, Noah, presents her with a secondhand copy of A Voyage of Discovery--Considering a Judaic Conversion? she flies into a rage and promptly books her flight to Dublin. Aisling seeks refuge in the familiar as she contemplates the biggest decision of her life.
Gilligan meticulously intertwines these three lives to relate the 20th-century Jewish experience in Ireland. The charm of her rich, delightfully complicated characters, combined with the allure and magic of her language, effortlessly carries the reader through a wondrous depiction of the power of story to transcend time and connect individuals. It's also a dazzling reminder of the role that readers--or listeners--play in a narrative. As Aisling experiences with A Voyage of Discovery, "the more she reads, the more other thoughts are triggered too. Memories. Half-forgotten facts. The glossary we bring to every text." As each character learns, the ending is dependent on the knowledge one brings to the experience; everyone brings a different glossary.
Whether readers have an intimate experience with Judaism or no experience at all, Nine Folds Makes a Paper Swan will captivate and inspire. A superb debut from an incredibly talented writer. --Jen Forbus, freelancer
Shelf Talker: Three lives, spanning the 20th century, tell the moving story of the Jewish experience in Ireland.