A Ghost in the Throat

Starred review from August 2, 2021
Irish poet and essayist Ní Ghríofa makes her North American debut with a rich mixed-genre story of her quest to learn about the life of 18th-century poet Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonail, author of “Caoineadh Airt Ui Laoghaire.” When Doireann first comes across the poem, about a woman who finds her husband shot dead and drinks the blood pouring from his wound, in high school, it sticks in her head like lyrics from a pop song. Several refrains recur in Ní Ghríofa’s narrative of her own life as a writer and middle-aged mother of four, including lines from the poem in her own translation, which she works on alongside her research of the poet’s family history and fabrication of Ní Chonail’s story, much of which is excised from the public record; snippets of U2’s “With or Without You” (“and you give yourself away”), a song Doireann dislikes but which resonates with her daily routine of filling bottles with breast milk for her own children as well as those in need; and the interchangeable “This is a female text,” which refers to this book, the “Caoineadh,” and even stains of breast milk on a sheet. As Doireann discovers and reveals how she sees herself in the poem and Eibhlín in herself, she leads the reader through an intensely beautiful reckoning. This is a remarkable achievement.

Starred review from April 15, 2021
A fascinating hybrid work in which the voices of two Irish female poets ring out across centuries. "When we first met, I was a child, and she had been dead for centuries," writes N� Ghr�ofa in her first work of prose--and what a debut it is. Earning well-deserved accolades abroad, the book merges memoir, history, biography, autofiction, and literary analysis. "This is a female text," she writes, a deeply personal response to a renowned Irish "caoineadh," an elegy or keen, written in 1773 by grief-stricken noblewoman Eibhl�n Dubh N� Chonaill after the shooting death of her husband. Exhausted from juggling housework, motherhood, and relocating, N� Ghr�ofa turned repeatedly to a "scruffy photocopy of Caoineadh Airt U� Laoghaire, inviting the voice of another woman to haunt my throat a while." While taking care of her new baby, the author formed an intimate identification with Eibhl�n Dubh, and "before long, the poem began to leak into my days." She wanted to learn more, "adding a brushstroke or two" to an intricately imagined portrait of her "growing in my mind." N� Ghr�ofa tracked down translations of the poem and obscure biographical information. During her second pregnancy, the author embarked on her own translation, which she includes at the end of this captivating, timeless narrative. With her new baby in tow, she visited a monastery where "Eibhl�n Dubh spoke her grief in their ruins." Anxious to learn about the "scattered jigsaw" of the poet's days, N� Ghr�ofa undertook genealogical research and sought out family correspondence. Pondering "all the absent texts composed by women," the author got a tattoo, forever etching the poet's words into her skin. She also visited Derrynane, where Eibhl�n Dubh wrote her lament. Although much of the poet's life remains hidden, she holds N� Ghr�ofa "close as ink on paper and steady as a pulse." Lyrical prose passages and moving introspection abound in this unique and beautiful book.

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