In the Pynck with debut Irish award winning tale ‘A Ghost in The Throat’
POET and essayist Doireann Ní Ghriofa has added another quill to her repertoire in the penning of ‘A Ghost in The Throat’, the 2020 winner of the An Post Irish Book Awards.
While the author already has acquired a prestigious collection of awards to her name her prose in weaving two stories together, that of the actual 18th century Irish noblewoman Eibhlin Dubh Ní Chonaill and her modern day counterpart have earned the debut bestseller the newest accolade as the An Post Book awards winner.
The book was chosen earlier this month above those by blockbuster authors including Lee Child and Graham Norton, and 11 others on the shortlist of 14. Doireann Ní Ghriofa’s actual 18th century heroine lived in the waning days of Gaelic Ireland, one of the last of the Irish nobility who laments the murder of her husband in a most unusual way in a present-day parallel to a young mother who narrowly avoids tragedy in her own life.
“This book tells my story but it also tells the story of Eibhlin Dubh Ní Chonaill,” said Doireann Ní Ghriofa on winning the An Post Book Award. “If I have learned anything from writing this book it is when we speak the words of those who have left this life, for a moment they come back and they are with us again.”
The An Post Irish Book of the Year recognises the best among shortlist winners, a book for the holiday season. Annual shortlists and ultimately, winners sponsored by Bord Gáis are selected by thousands among the Irish public including readers, authors, booksellers, publishers and librarians.
‘Their muskets point towards a young man who is falling from his saddle in slow, slow motion,’ reads an excerpt from this worthy selection for the Great Pynck Christmas Read Series. ‘A woman hurries in and kneels over him, her voice rising in an antique formula of breath and syllable the teacher calls a “caoineadh”, a keen to lament the dead.’
‘A Ghost in The Throat’ is available from select Irish booksellers, online through Tramp Press publishers at https://tramppress.com and on Amazon and Kindle.
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