The Paper Man
Billy O'Callaghan
(Author)
Description
A deeply moving interwar romance set between 1930s Austria and 1980s Ireland, based on a real-life unsolved mystery.
1930s Austria. Vienna is a bustling, cosmopolitan city on the brink of war. Matthias Sindelar is an internationally renowned soccer player known as "The Paper Man" because of his because of his effortless weave across the field. When Sindelar speaks out against Hitler, his fame can't protect him from being placed under Gestapo surveillance. Meanwhile, Sindelar falls in love with a young Jewish girl named Rebekah. As the atmosphere in Vienna darkens under the Nazi regime, Rebekah flees to relatives in Cork, Ireland. Only after she arrives there does she realize she is pregnant with Sindelar's child. The following year, at the age of 35, The Paper Man is found dead in his apartment.1980s Ireland. In the Jewish Quarter of Cork, Rebekah's son Jack Shine discovers a bundle of German letters and newspaper clippings tied with a ribbon while sorting his mother's belongings. With the help of his German-speaking father-in-law, Jack translates the letters and attempts to piece together his family history and, hopefully, solve the mystery of his father's identity. Based on real people and true events, The Paper Man is the story of twentieth-century Europe, the Holocaust, the cost of fame, and love against the odds.
Product Details
Price
$28.95
$26.92
Publisher
David R. Godine Publisher
Publish Date
May 02, 2023
Pages
248
Dimensions
6.3 X 9.3 X 1.0 inches | 1.15 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9781567927856
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
Billy O'Callaghan is the author of four short story collections (In Exile, In Too Deep, The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind, and The Boatman) and the novels The Dead House and My Coney Island Baby. His work has been translated into a dozen languages and earned him numerous honors, including three Bursary Awards for Literature from the Arts Council of Ireland and, in 2013, a Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Award for the Short Story of the Year. His short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in literary journals and magazines around the world, including: Absinthe: New European Writing, Agni, Bellevue Literary Review, Chattahoochee Review, Confrontation, Fiddlehead, Hayden's Ferry Review, Kenyon Review, Kyoto Journal, London Magazine, Los Angeles Review, Narrative, Ploughshares, Salamander, and Saturday Evening Post. Mr. O'Callaghan lives in Cork, Ireland.
Reviews
Praise for The Paper Man
"Irish author O'Callaghan (Life Sentences) brings to life 1930s Austria and 1980s Ireland in this mesmerizing tale of love, soccer, and family secrets....O'Callaghan's storytelling is magnetic." --Publishers Weekly, starred review"In O'Callaghan's haunting historical novel, decades-old wartime secrets are revealed. The poignant and passionate The Paper Man covers lost love, anguished lives, and the discovery of an enduring heritage." --Foreword Reviews
Praise for Billy O'Callaghan's previous novel, Life Sentences "Billy O'Callaghan uses a trio of voices in his poignant novel Life Sentences as three generations of an Irish family probe a legacy of poverty and war. ....powerful."
--New York Times
"O'Callaghan has done a brilliant job of capturing the ethos of the Irish setting as we see it through the beautifully created lives of his characters, who are extraordinary, as is this timeless book about them."
--Booklist (starred review) "O'Callaghan writes with a bright, enlivening emotional palette and a penetrating eye for the details of family history. A deeply felt and distinctive work by a real craftsman."
--Kirkus (starred review)
