Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan [Paperback]

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 Irelands all-but-forgotten Jewish community. Ruth Gilligans beautiful and heartbreakingWithIn a boldly ambitious novel of family and belonging, Gilligan chronicles the history of Jewish immigrants in Ireland by weaving together three interconnected stories spanning more than a century. . . All three storiesmore intertwined than any of the participants knowareA stellar U.S. debut . . .Reading Ruth Gilligans?Gilligan pieces together the largely untold story of Ireland's Jewish community, plucking at the heartstrings with thisThe charm of [Gilligan's] 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. . . . Whether readers have an intimate experience with Judaism or no experience at all,?Richly layered with stories within stories and unexpected connections, this isGilligans tenderly expressive novel is a brilliant riff on her Irish literary heritage. . . .?The most famous literary Irishman of all time was a Jew, yet the stories of his community have been seldom told.?Three intertwining voices span the twentiethcentury to tell the unknown story of the Jews in Ireland. A heartbreakingportrait of what it means to belong, and how storytellló.