Tags
biography, creative non-fiction, essays, Ireland, Irish poetry, poetry, self-realization in women, women authors
A contemporary Irish woman sets out to learn more about Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill, an 18th century female Irish poet, and her famous lament for her husband. In her reading and travels around Ireland, she finds connections between her own life as a poet and mother to this woman born hundreds of years earlier. This is an unusual book, and I loved the beautiful writing and pieces of Irish poetry and history.
“A powerful, bewitching blend of memoir and literary investigation … Ní Ghríofa is deeply attuned to the gaps, silences and mysteries in women’s lives, and the book reveals, perhaps above all else, how we absorb what we love―a child, a lover, a poem―and how it changes us from the inside out.”―Nina Maclaughlin, New York Times
“A Ghost in the Throat moves between past and present with hallucinogenic intensity as the narrator uncovers the details of the dead woman’s life, each revelation deepening her own sense of herself as a writer and a woman and creating in the process a brave and beautiful work of art.”―Republic of Consciousness Prize
“A fascinating hybrid work in which the voices of two Irish female poets ring out across centuries. ‘When we first met, I was a child, and she had been dead for centuries,’ writes Ní Ghríofa in her first work of prose―and what a debut it is. Earning well-deserved accolades abroad, the book merges memoir, history, biography, autofiction, and literary analysis… Lyrical prose passages and moving introspection abound in this unique and beautiful book.”―Kirkus (starred review)
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