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A Ghost in the Throat

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A Ghost in the Throat

By: Doireann Ní Ghríofa
Narrated by: Siobhán McSweeney
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Nominated for the Desmond Elliot Prize 

A true original. In this stunningly unusual prose debut, Doireann Ní Ghríofa sculpts essay and autofiction to explore inner life and the deep connection felt between two writers centuries apart.

In the 1700s, an Irish noblewoman, on discovering her husband has been murdered, drinks handfuls of his blood and composes an extraordinary poem. Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill s Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire, famously referred to by Peter Levi, professor of poetry at Oxford University, as 'the greatest poem written in either Ireland or Britain during the eighteenth century'.

In the present day, a young mother narrowly avoids tragedy. On encountering the poem, she becomes obsessed with its parallels with her own life, and sets out to track down the rest of the story. A Ghost in the Throat is a devastating and timeless tale about one woman freeing her voice by reaching into the past and finding another's.

©2020 Doireann Ní Ghríofa (P)2021 W F Howes Essays Infants & Toddlers Literary History & Criticism Parenting & Families Nonfiction Haunted
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I feel that this is a book that benefits from being an audiobook. I loved the narration. I was surprised how engrossed I got in the tales interwoven and the stories of the lives through time

Captivating and beautifully narrated

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Enjoyed this unique book. The authors honesty, vulnerability and passion shines throughout. A fresh perspective on Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire and homage to Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chinaill. A great " female text".

unique & compelling

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A beautiful stitching together of a woman, a mother, a writer and a wife with her quest to recognise the voice and being of one that has been lost to the shadow.

Beautiful

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Past & present beautifully intertwined. Perfectly narrated.
This story is life changing, it is easy to see the popularity of Art Ó L across the centuries.

I think this story may be life changing

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The self reflective story of a woman's journey through childbirth, breast-feeding and weaning and the forgotten 18th century poetess that inspired her, nourished her and haunted her. A really beautiful text. I gobbled it up.

Poetic, original and deeply touching

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