The Paper Man
In Billy O’Callaghan’s haunting historical novel The Paper Man, decades-old wartime secrets are revealed.
Rebekah died of tuberculosis when her son, Jack, was a boy; the identity of Jack’s father was never disclosed. In Ireland in 1980, grown-up Jack finds a cardboard box, hidden away and “bearded in dust,” that belonged to Rebekah. It contains letters, newspaper clippings, and photographs. Jack’s father-in-law translates the letters and articles from their original German, and a story of love and displacement develops.
Jack learns that his father was a famed Austrian soccer player, Matthias, whose remarkable athletic skill seemed to make “shreds” of his opponents. But his partner, Rebekah, was Jewish; she fled Austria to live with relatives in Ireland while Matthias remained in Vienna. When their child was a baby, Matthias died in a suspicious manner—a fatality perhaps prompted by his contempt for Adolf Hitler’s regime.
The narrative shifts from World War II Vienna to post-war Cork to develop its ill-fated romance via measured revelations. Matthias’s prowess on the soccer field is tempered by his pragmatic humility and quiet ardor for Rebekah. Jack is startled to see a photograph of his parents together as a couple; though he remembers his mother as being meek and anxious, with Matthias she smiled with contented intimacy, her long hair flowing in a loose, “wild spill.” And Cork’s Jewish quarter is revealed as a place where refugees who’d fled from the Russian army or Nazi brutality took shelter in small houses and tenements, settling into a dockside neighborhood that seemed to teeter on the “edge of the world.”
Via fragile historical remnants, the poignant and passionate novel The Paper Man covers lost love, anguished lives, and the discovery of an enduring heritage.
Reviewed by
Meg Nola
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
