A review by katiegilley
A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa

5.0

A Ghost in the Throat was such a beautiful book. It's about a young Irish mother who becomes obsessed with an 18th century Irish poet. She spends her day making to-do lists to take care of her home and giving of herself constantly. But she steals away from everything while she's nursing and pumping and enters into the world of Eibhlín Dubh, "sipping [her] own dark sustenance from ink." She translates Dubh's poem and meticulously researches her family lineage. She visits the known places that Dubh visited and lived. "What's all this for?", asks a visiting nurse after the birth of her third child, as she boldly flips through the folders she's collected on Dubh. It's because, surprisingly, Eibhlín Dubh's poem is famous and studied in Irish schools yet there is almost no academic work done on her life. That's because Dubh is a woman and so much of women's lives is erased, day after day.

I saw so much of my own daily life in these pages. This is a female text, the book states from the beginning. Maybe you'll see some of your own life captured here?