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A Ghost in the Throat Audiobook
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When we first met, I was a child, and she had been dead for centuries.
On discovering her murdered husband's body, an eighteenth-century Irish noblewoman drinks handfuls of his blood and composes an extraordinary lament. Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill's poem travels through the centuries, finding its way to a new mother who has narrowly avoided her own fatal tragedy. When she realizes that the literature dedicated to the poem reduces Eibhlín Dubh's life to flimsy sketches, she wants more: the details of the poet's girlhood and old age; her unique rages, joys, sorrows, and desires; the shape of her days and site of her final place of rest. What follows is an adventure in which Doireann Ní Ghríofa sets out to discover Eibhlín Dubh's erased life—and in doing so, discovers her own.
Moving fluidly between past and present, quest and elegy, poetry and those who make it, A Ghost in the Throat is a shapeshifting book: a record of literary obsession; a narrative about the erasure of a people, of a language, of women; a meditation on motherhood and on translation; and an unforgettable story about finding your voice by freeing another's.
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“A thrilling voyage into the lore of Ireland, motherhood, marriage, blood, and guts…This is both a page-turner and a raw but erudite expression of a totally unique consciousness.”
— New York magazine
Quotes
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“She pieces together Ní Chonaill’s life as if she is darning a hem, keeping the story from unraveling further… The real woman Ní Ghríofa summons forth is herself.”
— New York Times -
“An achingly gorgeous literary exploration that establishes a sisterhood across generations.”
— Foreword Reviews (starred review) -
“Electrifying…The book’s title conveys the uncanny feeling Ní Ghríofa had while writing the book, of having another’s voice emanate from her own throat.”
— Globe and Mail (Toronto) -
“An account of motherhood and transformation.”
— New York Times Book Review
Awards
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Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize
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Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize
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Longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize
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A 2020 London Guardian Best Book of the Year
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Longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Award
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A BuzzFeed Books Pick of Best Books of Summer
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Winner of the An Post Irish Book Award
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A New York Times Notable Book of 2021
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A 2021 Chicago Public Library Best of the Best
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An NPR Best Book of the Year
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A Globe and Mail (Toronto) Best Books of 2021 Pick
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A Winnipeg Free Press Top Read of 2021
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A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
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About Doireann Ní Ghríofa
Doireann Ni Ghriofa is a poet and essayist. In addition to A Ghost in the Throat, she is the author of six critically acclaimed books of poetry, each a deepening exploration of birth, death, desire, and domesticity. Awards for her writing include a Lannan Literary Fellowship, the Ostana Prize, a Seamus Heaney Fellowship, and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.