The Paper Man

A Novel

By: Billy O'Callaghan

Narrated by: Helen Lloyd, Gerard Doyle

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.

©2023 Billy O'Callaghan (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

A very moving novel

This novel was red beautifully by Helen Lloyd and Gerard Doyle
I truly enjoyed this novel and recommend it. It is a sad novel, but tells a beautiful story.

Heartfelt Family Love Story

The readers were very good and put me into the country of Ireland. I enjoyed the love the families had for each other, Jack’s father-in-law, the cousins of young Rebecca, the kindness they exuded. A search for connection and a good read.