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    Paperbark Shoe
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    Paperbark Shoe
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    Paperbark Shoe
    Ebook337 pages6 hours

    Paperbark Shoe

    By Goldie Goldbloom

    3.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Gin, the albino, marries to escape the confines of an asylum. Toad, a small man who wears corsets, marries to prove his manhood. Together they are freaks—feared and ridiculed by the remote farming community in which they live. Then into their lives come two Italian POWs bringing music, sensuality and a love that will fan the flames of small town bigotry.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFremantle Press
    Release dateOct 1, 2010
    ISBN9781921696411
    Unavailable
    Paperbark Shoe
    Author

    Goldie Goldbloom

    Goldie Goldbloom’s first novel, The Paperbark Shoe, won the AWP Prize, was named the Literary Novel of the Year by Foreward Magazine and is an NEA Big Reads selection. She was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and has been the recipient of multiple grants and awards, including fellowships from Warren Wilson, Northwestern University, the Brown Foundation, the City of Chicago and the Elizabeth George Foundation. She is chassidic and the mother of eight children.

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    Reviews for Paperbark Shoe

    3.5/5

    19 ratings19 reviews

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    • 3/5
      The distinct voices of Goldbloom's work sucked me in the beginning, and I read the first third or so of the work in one sitting. Once the unique flavor of the voice wore off some, however, I grew less and less engaged with the work. The premise was interesting, and I was fascinated with the history behind the work, but the characters were (for the most part) simply unlikable. While I could sympathize with their situations, I still couldn't bring myself to care about the circumstances that they had, for the most part, brought upon themselves. And while I cared about the prisoners who were at the forefront of Goldbloom's ideas, their characters were superficial enough that they never felt entirely real in anything but their effect on Goldbloom's focus characters. In the last third of the book, I found myself reading simply to finish, having long ago been able to predict the trajectory of the novel's conclusion and characters.In the end, I'm afraid this isn't a book I'm likely to recommend. Goldbloom's experiments in narrative voice were discombobulating and difficult to navigate in the midst of an otherwise traditional narrative, and the book as a whole was predictable once it got going. As fascinating as the Idea of the novel was...I'm afraid that it just wasn't enough.
    • 4/5
      A beautifully descriptive book filled with very odd and largely unlikeable characters - the main character is Gin Toad, an albino woman married to a man who met her in an insane asylum. Gin is cultured, plays piano to the highest level and is from a privileged background - yet circumstances have led to her living a life of poverty and backbreaking hard work on a property in Western Australia with her husband (closet homosexual and ladies corset collector) Mr Toad. Into this environment are brought two Italian prisonersof-war - their effect on the Toad family forms the focus of the novel.
    • 3/5
      Virginia Boyle (Gin Toad), an albino and classically trained pianist, marries Agrippa Toad, a farmer and sheep rancher. On their remote farm in western Australia, they are joined by Antonio and John, two of the 18,000 Italian prisoners-of-war sent to Australia between 1941 and 1947 and used to alleviate the labour shortage on isolated farms. What ensues is an “unholy entanglement of John and Toad, Antonio and [Gin].”This is definitely a novel of characters and relationships. Gin and Toad are complete opposites. She is well-educated and cultured whereas he is an uncouth “cinaedus” who lacks “even the basics of an elementary education.” What brought them together “wasn’t happiness. It wasn’t love.” Gin saw Toad as her rescuer from her incarceration in a mental institution. She says, “It wasn’t good, what Toad and I had, but at least we were in it together, yoked together like mismatched beasts pulling a plough.” They are both outcasts of society, she because of her albinism, and he because of his stunted physical appearance and sexual proclivities. One can have sympathy for Gin, the narrator, because she has not had an easy life. She has experienced constant rejection and has an emotionally unfulfilling marriage, so is desperate for acceptance and love. Her life is one of grinding poverty in virtual isolation. When she does encounter others, they invariably treat her as an object of mockery and superstition because people are trained from an early age “to hate the things that are different.” She has also lost much and “loss doesn’t end” so the reader can understand her cynicism and bitterness. However, empathy for Gin is difficult to maintain because she is not a likeable person. She is very selfish and her treatment of her children is hard to forgive. At best she is a reluctant mother raising feral children whom she would abandon without a second thought. One of Gin’s neighbours says, “’I know you never wanted none of your kids, Gin, except maybe that first one, the ghosty one like you.’” Despite the mistreatment she has received because of her condition, she wants only albino children? When someone else experiences loss, she thinks only of herself, and so is told, “’You are a stone fortress, not a person. When you opened your gates, it was not to surrender to me, but to capture me. Do not call this love.’” All of the characters are damaged. Gin and Toad are metaphorical prisoners, but Antonio and John are literal prisoners and objects of suspicion. Toad can be very cruel, John is untrustworthy, Antonio is manipulative, and even the children are sly. The people in the nearby, very insular community are close-minded and hateful as befits Gin’s description of them: “God made the land and men made the cities but the devil made small country towns.”It is Gin’s relationship with the exotic Antonio that receives the most attention. He seems to be everything Toad is not and gives Gin the attention that she doesn’t receive from her husband. He tells her, “’You are like the Venus . . . like the Maria in the church, smooth white marble, perfect. There is nothing more beautiful.’” He sings opera with her and offers to help her with her chores, even “spending hours with [her] in the hot laundry shed.” The question is whether Antonio really loves her, or is he living in a fantasy world to make his life in exile more bearable, or is he a lothario who considers Gin just a gingilla. Goldbloom excels at descriptions of the landscape. It is obvious that she is familiar with the setting. The outback is arid and desolate and possesses cruel indifference, capricious weather, and many hidden dangers. In many ways it can be seen as a metaphor for the war. Unfortunately, at times the amount of sensory detail is almost overwhelming: “in the damp, hidden places, rise the wildflowers of the wheatbelt: the blue fairy orchid, the flame grevillea, fields of pink everlastings, the yellow hakea and the sandpaper wattle, the praying virgin orchid and the strange bloom of the warty hammer orchid. The labellum of this flower is brown and speckled like the abdomen of the thynnid wasp.” When describing milking cows, the author goes on and on: “One cow releases a flood of urine . . . and the others step daintily through the liquid, shine their splayed hooves in it. The children sweep the puddle into the gutter with their bare feet. . . .[The cows] press forward to eat the small pile of grain before them. Their long mauve tongues stretch out endlessly, wetly, prehensile. In the low slanting light of dawn, the great swathes of spider web bunched from the beams glow golden and luxurious. The fly tapes twisting over the cows’ backs seem like black lingerie, the cows warm and fertile, the splash of manure in the gutter smelling of the summer grass. . . . they settle to chewing, muffled as dawn on a foggy morning, with the eyes of the bull on their rear ends. . . . Toad tilts the bucket on his boot, milks swiftly with Clydesdale fingers . . . The girl child, the small boy, their father and I, milk. Silence.” Of course being able to describe milking in such lyrical language is commendable.The book was interesting for shedding light on a part of World War II about which I knew little. I was unaware that Italian prisoners were used as manpower on Australian farms. I also did not know about the events at Sant’Anna during World War II. If I had known about this historical event, my emotions while reading this book would have been quite different.The book is not a light read since its themes include war, bigotry, loss, isolation, and survival.
    • 4/5
      The Paperbark Shoe is a novel about the repercussions of war, displacement, and living as a captive in an enemy country.
    • 3/5
      Virginia, Gin, Gingilla, Missus Toad, Pet, Mum, or Freak... Though her names are many, her struggles are even more. The story of this albino; the time, location, relationships, pains, fears, bravery, and much much more... None of it was I able to connect with on a personal level. And it is for this reason I enjoyed the book. I was stretched in my ability to relate in any way to any of the characters which made me feel uncomfortable, truth be told. But then I realized that this spoke volumes about the author, Goldie Goldbloom, and I'm grateful to her for the brief but detailed insight into Gin's world in The Paperbark Shoe.
    • 3/5
      Over my years of reading, there has been one book with a main character I absolutely despised. Actually, let me revise that. There's been one very well-written book with a main character I absolutely despised. That character was in Philip Roth's "When She Was Good." Goldie Goldbloom has the writing chops I think - overall, the talent in the writing was there, but the protagonist just didn't make sense. The main character and narrator Gin Toad just didn't add up in my mind. Her narrative voice just seemed too unrefined for her established background. The only explanation I could muster was that she was still very mentally ill throughout or somehow, just really, for lack of a better word, idiotic. I found all the characters unlikable actually and by the end, wasn't attached to any other than feeling that the children had received a bad lot in life. As for the ultimate end of the story, it broke too much from the rest of the book and seemed shoe-horned (pun!) in. It could have been cut entirely as it really offered nothing. All that said, it's still a three-star book. Goldbloom displayed enough talent that I think I could really enjoy a future offering if the characters were delivered differently.
    • 4/5
      This book was first published under the title "Toads' Museum of Freaks and Wonders" which seems more apt than "The Paperbark Shoe". The word "freaks" references two of the central characters, an albino woman, Gin Boyle, and her dwarfish, cross-dressing, bisexual, husband, Toad. Theirs is a loveless marriage of people who believe they can do no better. Both are viewed as misfits by most people, and are social outcasts, living in harsh, unforgiving, isolated terrain during the stress of WWII. Both characters are blindingly self-centered, capable of great cruelty, and relentlessly selfish in pursuit of their respective obsessions. They are clearly starved for compassion and human connection, and their desperation drives them to extremes. It is often easier to sympathize with Gin's plight in life. She's a well-educated, talented pianist who has encountered a lifetime of cruelty, ostracism, and abuse solely because of her genetic condition. Toad's character, however, more often elicits revulsion and pity, though he occasionally surprises with unexpected, thoughtful kindnesses. It appears that his sexual preferences and various eccentricities pose the most formidable barriers to the possibilities of their ever having a happy marriage.Goldbloom is gifted at establishing the setting, utilizing detailed descriptions of outback to reflect various themes and plot points to great effect. Her characters are well-developed, complex and highly original creations that won't soon be forgotten. It should be noted that the book as a whole is relentlessly depressing, offering almost nothing to inspire or uplift, which may be a serious drawback for readers who enjoy happy endings or at least a glimmer of hope or redemption in some form. It does, however, have much to offer for discussion/analysis and could make for heated book club discussions and debates.
    • 4/5
      This book chronicles the life of a woman, in first person past tense, of good upbrining from perth who happens to be albino and thus marries the first person who shows her that's she's wanted, albeit for the wrong reasons. It goes through their life in the WA farm country where the odd couple must deal with small-minded neighbors during WWII and the interactions of their italian POW workhands. The writing was very true to the australian style of language, almost as if the narrator spoke into a recorder and then copied word for word, sometimes even phonetically spelling things. There were sections that were somewhat hard to understand, but I might have read it too fast. Overall it is a good story about what really makes a person, and the importance of feeling loved; how we actually judge one another, and how we SHOULD judge one another. Worth reading.
    • 5/5
      I'm not quite sure why I've been so lucky to get all these 5-star reads lately, but I'm sure not complaining. Hell, THE PAPERBARK SHOE is one of those books that would be a 10-star if there were one. Goldie Goldbloom's first novel has already won some awards and I can easily see why. THE PAPERBARK SHOE is one of the most unique - i.e. "different" - stories to come down the pike in many years, with its protagonist-narrator Gin (Hoyle) Toad, an albino woman (and classically trained pianist) who was discarded into an asylum by an abusive stepfather to be rescued from there by an ugly, physically and emotionally flawed outback sheepman and farmer, Agrippas Toad. There are so many things about this strange and beautiful novel that appealed to me: its remote outback setting in the wheat belt of western Australia is only one. And if there were any justice in the literary world, this book would be the biggest Aussie bestseller since THE THORN BIRDS. (And I could certainly see it as a movie too. Meryl Streep would have been perfect as Gin Toad - the Streep of 20-30 years ago, that is.) The World War II time frame and the forbidden love element with the Italian POWs are other reasons this story is so compelling and un-put-downable. Oh, don't get me wrong; this is no Harlequin bodice-ripper. Quite the opposite - the grit, dirt, drought and sometime near-grinding poverty of Toad's place is real enough at times to make you want to go take a shower. There is kinky sex here too, hetero-, homo- and maybe even bisexual, but never presented in an offensive manner. No, Goldbloom manages to pull off these elements of the plot in such a way that you will probably feel only sympathy (if not empathy) for these twisted, emotionally scarred and often desperately unhappy people. (The book's original title was TOADS' MUSEUM OF FREAKS AND WONDERS, which was probably a more apt and descriptive moniker, if a bit unwieldy.)And the characters are what make this book as good as it is - and once again, lemme tell ya, books don't come much better than this one. First and foremost is Gin, the albino anti-heroine (abused misfit, brilliant musician, bereaved and sometimes reluctant mother, wife to an ugly little army reject whose mixed sexual inclinations and kinky habits are often repugnant and, finally, mistress and runaway). Then there is Toad, her husband, ugly and often cruel, but who becomes a curiously sympathetic character by book's end. And there is the enigmatic and sweet-talking Antonio, the Italian POW whose handsomeness and sympathy are too powerful for poor Gin to ignore. And the outback itself becomes a character here, in its cruel indifference and harsh and unforgiving weather which can starve and kill crops and stock alike - and do. What more can I tell you about this book? Maybe only that I was sad to see it end. It is that good. If you're reading this review, then you must enjoy books. My advice? DO NOT MISS THIS BOOK! Goldie Goldbloom writes like an angel that has been to hell and got to know its denizens and then came back to tell their story. THE PAPERBARK SHOE is simply top-notch in every way.
    • 2/5
      Goldie Goldbloom has eight children and somehow found the time and energy to write a novel that won the coveted 2008 AWP Prize. I was drawn to the book because it is set in the 1940s on a ranch in western Australia when Italian prisoners were assigned to farms to serve as laborers. The aptly-named Toads, Gin and Agrippas, have been married for ten years and own a ranch in an existence that sets a new standard for hard scrabble. Gin, the wife, has albinism and her husband is a dwarf-like man whose hobby is collecting ladies' corsets. They somehow met at an insane asylum where he was visiting someone and overheard her playing the piano. He proposed upon first sighting, and she accepted, convinced that no one else would want her. Their marriage is as emotionally barren as the landscape they occupy. When their two Italian POWs arrive to work on the ranch, there is "an unholy entanglement" among the four adults that destroys the already stretched-thin fabric of the Toads' relationship. I alternately felt pity and dislike for both the Toads, and sorrow for their children.Goldbloom's prose is unquestionably beautiful; her descriptions of the landscape, the Toads' life on the ranch and their personalities are thorough and, at times, haunting. However, I struggled to finish this book with its opaque plot and unlikeable characters.
    • 4/5
      In A Room of One's Own Virginia Woolf urged women to write books "adapted to the body." A lot of feminist literary theorists (Irigarary, Cixous, Kristeva, to name a very few) have investigated what a writing of the female and/or feminine body might be. And some novelists have given us beautiful examples of it, as Woolf herself did, as Gloria Naylor does, and as Goldie Goldbloom does here. Whatever else Goldbloom's book is, it's a gorgeous, seductive writing through the body.The book's protagonist, Gin, and her husband both experience the world through their bodies, constantly aware of themselves as albino (her) and small, ugly, and possibly transgendered (him). When they see things or do things, they're seeing, doing as people trapped in their antipathetic bodies. And we, readers of this mostly first-person narrative, experience the book similarly, through how things look, feel, taste to Gin. Even the land is meaningful -- salty, dry, deadly, fertile -- to her and to us in a way that echoes the desiring, suffering, sensual body. The book takes place during World War II, a time when the materiality of bodies was of high consequence, allowing the plot to beautifully entwine with the narrative method. The plot is strong and involving, as other reviewers have noted. The last 20 or so pages feel tacked on, but I only noticed this belatedly, so seductive is Goldbloom's writing. (Spoiler alert!!!!!) And it's perhaps this seduction that's the most interesting part of the book, for it wasn't until I'd nearly finished that I realized how much living inside Gin had blinded me (and her) to how utterly monstrous she became.
    • 1/5
      This book has won an award so obviously, a lot of people like it. I didn't. First of all, I completely respect and applaud the purpose.. to show readers, to open people's eyes to what it is like to be disabled, different, ostracized by society, to be uncomfortable in one's own skin not because YOU are ashamed, but because other people are. BUT, I didn't like a single character. They are all incredibly weird. The sanest of the lot is one of the POW's. The heroine is an albino who has very nearly one of the worst marriages in the world. Her husband married her to have a radio at his beck and call.. She's a pianist. The problem for me was anytime I began to feel sorry for her, to understand and sympathize, she would do something awful and I would dislike her all over again. "I tripped on a dog lying before the door and I pulled its ears and kicked its rump for its grovelling stupidity in being comfortable on that cursed veranda..." Personally, someone needs to kick HER in the rump and in Toad's rump. Every character is just WEIRD. Toad likes to dress as a woman and do burlesque and he paints pictures in the outhouse. He bites his wife leg at one point too and I didn't see a rhyme or a reason for it. Also, too much telling and too little showing at a lot of points. I did the enjoy the romance aspect a bit, but all in all, I simply couldn't stand this. I would not even rate or review it if it wasn't expected of me. Again, however, this did win a big award.. so perhaps it's just me.
    • 5/5
      Gin Boyle, an albino woman, has been saved from a life in a mental hospital by marrying Toad and moving to Wyalkatchem, a small town in Australia on the edge of the desert. Gin’s past is muddy and sad, and her future is not that much better. She and Toad eek out their existence among the rabbits and dust, raising their two young children and living side by side in a loveless marriage. But then, in the middle of World War II, eighteen thousand Italian prisoners of war arrive in Australia – men who are imprisoned by their nationality even though Mussolini has surrendered and they are technically no longer the enemy. Antonio and John arrive on the Toad’s farm, exiles and oddities, and everything will change. We had depended on one another. Nothing more. He had bred the sheep, found the water, lifted the things too heavy to bear. I had prepared food for him, strips of wrinkled bacon, the folded grey nodules of sweetbreads. I had made his clothes, his children, his bed. It wasn’t happiness. It wasn’t love. But it had been tolerable, so long as there was nothing else. – from The Paperbark Shoe, page 241 -Goldie Goldbloom’s breathtaking first novel is narrated in the cynical, observant and damaged voice of Gin, a woman who has lived with rejection her entire life due to her albino condition. She is swamped by poor self worth, and feels ugly and unlovable until Antonio turns his foreign eyes upon her. The Paperbark Shoe is a love story, but it is also a story of what it means to be isolated and searching for identity. It is a story of war, of disconnected lives, of the division between cultures and countries, of bigotry, of loss, and of survival. This novel is remarkable for its depth and for its vivid and striking language.We are isolated, but we do not invite isolation; every stretch of road has its markers for the lost. And the roads themselves have local names, friendlier than the ones given them by government workers who have never seen a fly-blown sheep. There’s the Pig Slurry Stretch and Metholated Mavis’s Gully and Kickastickalong. Every farm has its kerosene tin wedged between two stumps, or its Coolgardie safe on top of a Model T, and the people here say swing left at the kero tin or turn in at the motor and everyone knows what they mean. Antonio has hung a green milking stool from a stringy-bark at our turn-off. Toad’s stool. Toad’s tool. Toadstool. – from The Paperbark Shoe, page 180 -Goldbloom’s imagery is disturbing and at times grotesque. Like watching a train wreck, I found myself unable to look away even while wanting to cover my eyes. Goldbloom’s prose cuts deep, exposing alienation and the far-reaching impact of war. Her characters are survivors. They are largely unlikable. Even the children are deeply flawed. And yet, despite its grim observations and bizarre characters, The Paperbark Shoe is extraordinary.Perhaps most striking, are the characters who people the book. These are misfits, oddities, and outcasts. Toad is short-statured, and struggles with his sexuality while collecting women’s corsets. Despite his weirdness, he is an oddly sympathetic character. Antonio is perhaps the most complex character even though he initially appears one-dimensional. I found myself wondering, does he love Gin? Or is she simply a plaything to make his life in captivity more bearable? Gin’s desire for acceptance is palpable. Her albinism sets her apart from others and she endures ridicule with a hard-edged cynicism.Jouncing past the scalloped fences and the sheep’s skulls nailed to stretcher posts and the long lines of trees planted by the first settlers, I remind myself that God made the land and men made the cities but the devil made small country towns. – from The Paperbark Shoe, page 220 -Goldbloom uses these characters to symbolize those who are different and misunderstood in our society. It is perhaps this theme, of fitting into society vs. being rejected from it, which resonates the loudest in The Paperback Shoe. [...] we are trained from the time we are small to hate the things that are different from us. – from The Paperbark Shoe, page 240 -I found myself deeply entrenched in this novel. It is sad, disturbing and strange…and yet it is beautifully wrought. Goldbloom’s writing in The Paperback Shoe is nearly flawless. Her language is original and imaginative. I challenge anyone to read this novel and not be moved. I turned the final page and audibly sighed. I found myself thinking of the story, mulling over the characters, hours after I finished reading. Many readers will wonder where the beauty is in this novel among the scarred and damaged characters, and the dry and desolate countryside, but I think those most observant will discover that the beauty lies in how the story is told – its honesty and its acute examination of what it means to be different in a society where uniqueness is often perceived as negative.I loved this book. It is one which will stay with me. Goldie Goldbloom is a young author to watch.Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      This is a wonderful book. I loved the authors writing style and her character development . I am always fascinated with this time period in history. Highly recommend.
    • 5/5
      Recently published in the US, this debut novel was winner of the 2008 AWP Award for the Novel in Australia (Association of Writers and Writing Programs). Not at all what I expected, this powerful novel tells the story of Gin, an albino woman born in Australia and feared as some sort of witch by all who knew her. She found solace in the piano, and became a virtuoso player, but through a series of ugly circumstances, found herself incarcerated in an insane asylum.Enter Toad, a small slightly mishappen man, who collects ladies corsets, but who after hearing her playing, marries her and takes her to his sheep farm in the wilds of Western Australia. From here the story blossoms as Gin and Toad bond with two Italian POWs (one of whom is a shoemaker) who have been assigned to work on their farm.This is a beautifully written, yet disturbing love story. At the same time it is a story of poverty, drought, beauty, ugliness, perversion, mother love, and unmet needs both physical and pscychological. I was mesmerized, chilled, depressed, and gladdened by the story, by the writing, by the setting. It is a chapter in World War II history that I wasn't too aware of, and I had never considered the discrimination toward albinos that occurred. It certainly isn't a warm and fuzzy book, but it is one that packs a lot of emotion.I have left out many details here, because this book needs to be experienced, and its nuances and plot twists discovered along the way. There is not a huge involved plot--it is simply the story of four people plodding along, trying to stay alive and make it to the end of the war--but the setting and the characters and their interaction to each other and reactions to the setting really drive the story. It is one that will haunt the reader for a long time. A compelling and satisfying read.
    • 4/5
      In The Paperbark Shoe, Goldbloom relates the story of a woman attempting to survive the rigors of farm life in Australia during WWII. The main character struggles with the stigma of being born albino and is seemingly torn between loyalty to the man who helped her escape the machinations of an abusive parent, and first time love for an Italian POW who befriended her by appealing to her musical education.Although Goldbloom tells the story lyrically and draws her characters with a strong hand, one is not able to cozy up to any of the people in this book. At the center you have an emotionally disturbed woman, surrounded by a dysfunctional family, set amidst the ugliness and bigotry of rural living.While I did enjoy Goldbloom’s story, this is not a book that I would lightly recommend.
    • 1/5
      Unfortunately my efforts to finish reading through the Paperbark Shoe have failed. The story for me was difficult to get into and a bit gruesome and depressing. I read about half of the book and was hopeful that it would catch me up with the story. I guess this was just not my cup of tea.
    • 3/5
      Got this book in a giveaway - The story is told from the perspective of Gin Toad, an albino woman, living in Australia during WWII with her husband and two Italian POWs. Not something that I would normally pick up but I must say that I did enjoy it. It was an original spin on a war time "love story" with a cast of fabulously odd characters. I will warn though, definitely not a feel good book, but worth reading.
    • 5/5
      Goldie Goldbloom’s debut novel, The Paperbark Shoe, is magnificent. Open it, and you embark on an emotional journey of discovery through wholly original new psychological and physical landscapes. At its heart, it is a tender and heart-wrenching love story. Wound around and through this story are odd fascinating events, idiosyncratic characters, significant incidents from the historical record, and thought-provoking themes about discrimination, prejudice, and ethnic nationalism during times of war. Part of the joy of reading this novel is uncovering the history of each character. There are many psychological puzzles that need to be pieced together to help the reader understand what is happening and why. In my opinion, many of the reviews about this work reveal far too much. The less you know up-front, the more you will enjoy reading this exquisite and eccentric tale. These few facts should be enough. The book is set in the rough scrublands of Western Australia during World War II. At this time, Italian prisoners of war were parceled out to work as rural farmhands. In this way, two Italian prisoners come to work on the hardscrabble, dirt-poor farm of Gin and Aggripas Toad. Gin is a highly educated and cultured woman from Perth who trained for an international career as a classical pianist. She is also an albino who has suffered her entire life from discrimination. Her husband is illiterate, dirty, churlish, and uncouth. Town folk treat him with prejudice and disdain because of his small size and dwarfish features. In addition, they scorn him because they suspect he engages in sexual perversions. A love story develops between Gin and one of the Italian prisoners. Although their love is intense, it is also significant for its lack of overt sexuality. Instead, the author uses tender lyrical eroticism and penetrating psychological insight to show the gradual development of deep, long-lasting bonds of true love. Goldie Goldbloom is a gifted storyteller and an extraordinary new literary talent. The quality of her prose is exceptional—almost consistently stunning. The voice of Gin Toad is authentic and unforgettable…take, for example, this one brief example:“We work in silence, but I am exquisitely aware of Antonio’s presence. There is a weight in odd patrs of me that is pleasant and the longer I stand next to him, the stronger the sensation gets. His elbow touches mine. My hip touches his. Our bodies draw closer and closer, flowers bending toward sunshine in invisible motion.”The Paperbark Shoe is by far one of the best books I’ve read in the last year. It is a gem well worth its five-star rating.