Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan

Author/Guide: Ruth Gilligan

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1901,1958,2013: A story of belonging, finding your place in the world and the need to form roots

ISBN: 978-1782398561
Genre: Fiction

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What you need to know before your trail

1901: A family of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants are leaving their home and seeking a better life in America but they mistake “Cork” for “New York”. One of the daughters, Ruth is the most inquisitive and outspoken. Her father Moshe Greenberg is an aspiring playwright and he is keen to get his voice heard, both on the stage and on it.

1958: Shem has been mute since the eve of his bar mitzvah. He too literally has no voice until he befriends someone else in the institution they are confined in. This is an institution which doesn’t serve to help those in need – both suffer abuse and they want their voices to be heard

2013: MEanwhile in the present day, Aisling is an Irish immigrant living in London who must decide whether or not to convert to Judaism and marry Noah.

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The setting in this novel is somewhat blurred since it is not a place on a map or any place on earth in many respects but a place within a person’s heart and soul. This is the story of the persecution of Jews, their history of traditions and beliefs, the fact they have always had to flee to save themselves from harm, history littered with examples of Jewish misery and helplessness.

But the place they call home here in Ireland, is the Fifth Province – Ireland is divided into four at the time but they identify a fifth – a safe haven. This is the place where antisemitism won;t harm them, where they can be themselves. In fact the fifth Province is their faith just as the Chanukkah rituals in London is for Noah or even the Christmas traditions for Irish Aisling.

Being a Jew in Ireland, an Irish girl wanting to marry a Jew, an old man in an Irish care home or a young boy in an Irish institution – Two cultures mixed, with those looking in from the outside – showing displacement, wanting to belong and making sense of it all

Booktrailer Review

Clare: @thebooktrailer

I have found it really hard to review this novel for many reasons. namely that is it’s such a personal story and a heartbreaking and heartwarming one at the same time. There are moments when I felt I was reading someone’s diary and the thoughts and feelings that have been unleashed here are quite powerful.

The three stories I thought were a nice way of bringing in the story of Judaism and Irish Catholicism over three generations. The threads weave in ways I didn’t see the connection until the end and when the story of the old man comes full circle, but then that made it all the more powerful.

I learned a lot from this novel to be honest. A lot about Judaism and what these people have gone through and are still going through. Having said that there were many funny moments such as when Moshe is given the name Sean Ferguson once in Ireland. For anyone who has sat in between two cultures, or even moved to another country, there are elements to identify with. For me however I think it’s the greater sense of being aware of just how displacement and cultural traditions and rules fail sometimes to capture the needs of the human heart. We all need to belong somewhere.