Publishers Weekly
★ 02/20/2023
Irish author O’Callaghan (Life Sentences) brings to life 1930s Austria and 1980s Ireland in this mesmerizing tale of love, soccer, and family secrets. On the eve of Germany’s 1938 annexation of Austria, the latter’s national soccer team captain, Matthias Sindelar, is being surveilled by the Gestapo for mocking Hitler and his team’s German opponents on the field. Realizing he’s placed his Jewish lover, Rebekah, at risk, he persuades her to leave Vienna and join her cousins in Cork, Ireland. There, Rebekah discovers she is pregnant with Sindelar’s child. O’Callaghan then shifts to 1980 Cork, where Rebekah’s son, 41-year-old stevedore Jack Shine, finds stashed in his mother’s things a bundle of yellowed newspaper clippings about Sindelar and velvet-wrapped letters addressed to her and signed “S.” Jack is stunned; his mother, who died 30 years earlier, had never disclosed his father’s identity. With help from his father-in-law, Jack begins to trace his family history. There’s a natural realism to the Cork scenes, and a romanticizing of mid-1930s Vienna and its coffee houses, dance halls, and art exhibitions, which stands in aching contrast to the coming war and the couple’s separation. Even better is the action on the soccer pitch. With Sindelar’s team facing a sudden push from the Germans, they revert to “one-touching the play back and forth across the field, toying with their foe like picadors around a weary bull, lancing and weaving away, moving as wind moves.” O’Callaghan’s storytelling is magnetic. (May)
Booklist (starred review)
O’Callaghan has done a brilliant job of capturing the ethos of the Irish setting as we see it through the beautifully created lives of his characters, who are extraordinary, as is this timeless book about them.”
New York Times
Billy O’Callaghan uses a trio of voices in his poignant novel Life Sentences as three generations of an Irish family probe a legacy of poverty and war…Powerful.”
From the Publisher
Praise for Paper Man
“Irish author O’Callaghan (Life Sentences) brings to life 1930s Austria and 1980s Ireland in this mesmerizing tale of love, soccer, and family secrets....O’Callaghan’s storytelling is magnetic.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
Praise for Billy O'Callaghan's previous novel, Life Sentences
“Billy O’Callaghan uses a trio of voices in his poignant novel Life Sentences as three generations of an Irish family probe a legacy of poverty and war. ....powerful.”
—New York Times
“O’Callaghan has done a brilliant job of capturing the ethos of the Irish setting as we see it through the beautifully created lives of his characters, who are extraordinary, as is this timeless book about them.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“O’Callaghan writes with a bright, enlivening emotional palette and a penetrating eye for the details of family history. A deeply felt and distinctive work by a real craftsman.”
—Kirkus (starred review)
MAY 2023 - AudioFile
Helen Lloyd and Gerard Doyle's polished performance tells the story of the football player Matthias Sindelar, who in 1930s Vienna demonstrated his contempt for Hitler. That resulted in his Jewish girlfriend, Rebekah, fleeing to Cork, Ireland, before his death of unexplained circumstances. These events are interspersed with the story of Rebekah's son, who in the 1980s found a series of love letters that led him to explore the possibility that Sindelar could have been his father. The use of two strong narrators gives a clear distinction to the different timelines. Lloyd and Doyle are well matched, with both demonstrating excellent accents and characterizations. Their spot-on pacing keeps listeners engaged throughout this novel based on actual events. K.J.P. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
