Loosely inspired by the life of the Gypsy poetess Papusza, who died in 1987, Irish writer Colum McCann’s sixth book has an epic sweep not often found in contemporary novels. Zoli, the heroine, is orphaned at the age of six by Fascist guards in her native Czechoslovakia in the 1930s. She is secretly taught to read and write by her grandfather and, at the end of World War II, her gift for poetry and song brings her a moment of glory as the voice of the caravan-dwelling Roma and as “an authentic proletarian poet”. The story of her rise and subsequent fall from fame is told in part by a young Englishman, Stephen Swann, who travels behind the Iron Curtain to record her songs. Swann falls in love with Zoli and she with him – though she knows that her relationship with a non-Gypsy will mean being rejected by her own people.
Rejection, intolerance, the search for a home, and the wisdom of the heart are the substance of this haunting novel set against some of the darkest episodes of 20th-century history.