The Paper Man: A Novel

by Billy O'Callaghan, Helen Lloyd (Read by), Gerard Doyle (Read by)

Overview

A deeply moving interwar romance set between 1930s Austria and 1980s Ireland, based on a real-life unsolved mystery

1930s Austria. Vienna is a bustling, cosmopolitan city on the brink of war. Matthias Sindelar is an internationally renowned soccer player known as “The Paper Man” because of his effortless weave across the field. When Sindelar speaks out against Hitler, his fame can’t protect him from being placed under Gestapo surveillance. Meanwhile, Sindelar falls in love with a young Jewish girl named Rebekah. As the atmosphere in Vienna darkens under the Nazi regime, Rebekah flees to relatives in Cork, Ireland. Only after she arrives there does she realize she is pregnant with Sindelar’s child. The following year, at the age of thirty-five, the Paper Man is found dead in his apartment.

1980s Ireland. In the Jewish Quarter of Cork, Rebekah’s son Jack Shine discovers a bundle of German letters and newspaper clippings tied with a ribbon while sorting his mother’s belongings. With the help of his German-speaking father-in-law, Jack translates the letters and attempts to piece together his family history and, hopefully, solve the mystery of his father’s identity.

Based on real people and true events, The Paper Man is the story of twentieth-century Europe, the Holocaust, the cost of fame, and love against the odds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798212381642
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	05/02/2023
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Billy O'Callaghan is the author of the critically acclaimed novel My Coney Island Baby, which has been translated into nine languages and was shortlisted for the Encore Award 2020. Stories in his short-story collection The Boatman and Other Stories were shortlisted for the Costa Short Story Award and for Writie.ie Short Story of the Year in the An Post Irish Book Awards. He lives in Douglas, a village on the edge of Cork City.

Helen Lloyd is a classically trained actor who has a keen ear for accents and loves to bring characters to life. The narrator of books in numerous genres, she delights in new challenges.

Gerard Doyle reads everything from adult, young adult, and children's books to literary fiction, mysteries, humor, adventure, and fantasy. He has won countless AudioFile Earphones Awards and was named a Best Voice in Young Adult Fiction in 2008. His audiobook credits include the bestselling Inheritance series (Eragon, Eldest, and Brisinger),  How to Train Your Dragon, The Looking Glass Wars, Clubland, And Thereby Hangs a Tale, and Risk Worth Taking. His career in British repertory theatre includes many productions, most notably The Crucible, The Tempest, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Fiddler on the Roof.  In America, he has appeared in Broadway in The Weir and on television in New York Undercover and Law & Order.  Born of Irish parents and raised and educated in England, Gerard has taught drama at Ross School for the past several years.

Editorial Reviews

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)

★ 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)

Publishers Weekly

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)

From the Publisher

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

MAY 2023 - AudioFile