Through Pleated Light: Confessions and Translations

by Liam Heneghan

438 pages, Paperback

Published November 5, 2024

About the author

Liam Heneghan is an ecosystem ecologist working at DePaul University, where he is a professor of Environmental Science and Studies and co-director of DePaul University’s Institute for Nature and Culture. His research has included studies on the impact of acid rain on soil foodwebs in Europe, and inter-biome comparisons of decomposition and nutrient dynamics in forested ecosystems in North America and the tropics. Over the past two decades, Heneghan and his students have been working on restoration issues in midwestern ecosystems. Heneghan is also a graduate student in philosophy and an occasional poet. His interests in writing about children's literature started when his kids left home.

Reviews

[Kenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a wonderful intersection of Celtic myth and legend, nature writing, fantasy, and historical anthropology. I especially loved the times the author gave us the perspective of the dawn, a tree, and giants who are a sort of sentient rock formation. I also thought the book did a fantastic job of extending the myths of St. Patrick, Finn, and the sidhe while also bringing the modern reader into the story through academic references and time travel "through pleated light." Through the book, I felt like I became a part of many shifting identities, across species and across time. Quite a magical book.

[Katrinka]

Great story—I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment. And trust me: read the opening blurbs, which show you're in for a treat.

[Jess Vogt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really excellent. Thoroughly entertaining. Excellent world building. Echos of the writing styles of several other authors that I personally love: history retelling a la Umberto Eco, landscape descriptions as good as Rick Bass, fantastical elements a la Paulo Coehlo, and some of the chapters writing style reminds me of Orhan Pamuk. Can’t wait to see book two in this series…because with that ending, it had better be a series! (Ps, I know nothing of Irish folklore and I bet this would be even better if one did but didn’t suffer at all from a completely lack of knowledge of this sort.)

[Christie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The importance of myth in making sense of life is a theme that runs through the works of authors from current (e.g. Martin Shaw) to historical classics like Tolkien. I found this theme central in Liam Heneghan’s Through Pleated Light. The reader is almost immediately transported to Dublin, the author’s city of birth in a very unlikely way. In the initial pages, we meet a character who has unexpectedly landed in the present from an ancient, magic-infused time. He brings the reader into his history, recounting tales of intrigue, war, power, and magic as he explores the question of who he is by telling the story and coming of age of his former companion Sadb, a fairie warrior. An ancient Irish name meaning sweetness, Sadb’s tale introduces/immerses the reader in Irish mythology.

Intimate knowledge of a place – and its associated myth animates this tale. Weaving together aspects of Catholic imagery with the image of stepping through pleated light to capture the disorienting happenstance of time travel, or perhaps more correctly, traveling out of time, Liam immerses the reader in the smells of modern Dublin as well as a land of fairie and earth magic from long ago. The images of earth magic are made more resonant and concrete by the author’s ecological expertise (referenced in extensive footnotes). Ecological wanderings inform the author’s description of ecology of the fairie region – constructed from peatlands, mountains, forests, and waters of an enchanted Ireland. And while the Irish regions in the book are animated by a fairie magic, this book brings the reader into the natural enchantment of the wild.

One of my favorite passages is when the author lets the reader into the story of a tree, starting with an awakening to growth as an acorn. This arboreal character tells the story of its germination alongside a continued anger at the squirrel who ate his acorn siblings. Reminiscent of natural characters from Tolkien, these scenes are delightful and humorous.

Through pleated light is a captivating tale of magic, faith and folly. I highly recommend this for anyone looking to escape into an enchanted realm where you can laugh at the depth of characters who might share some of your strengths and flaws.

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

My wife's ancestors were mainly Irish, and as such I have a thin knowledge of that mythology. This isn't the sort of subject matter I steer towards in the bookstore, either. That said, this was one of the finest, most imaginative books I have read, well, ever.

Truthfully, I did not expect the structure of the story to captivate me, but it did. The story kept moving, it was alive in a way that was authentic. I also enjoyed the numerous moments of humor (i.e. pg.301 re: the excellences of Fionn). On a related note. I hope to go back and delve into the numerous (and excellent) footnotes in this book.

All that is fine, for sure. What I really loved about this book was the journey back into a natural world that is long gone. Otherworlds. Forests, meadows, mountains, and bogs. Certainly we 21st century humans recognize life in nature, at least whats's left of it.

Through Pleated Light brings us stories from a time when humans were, by necessity, living much closer to the landscape. It was a time when the lines between mankind and animals, plants, water, and rocks (big rocks, that is!) were thinner and sometimes breached. Such understanding was part and parcel of human spirituality. Elements of this story - for me - at times echoed writers such as Tim Robinson and Karen Armstrong.

Visiting this world made me sad to recognize what has been lost in modern society. Where are our giants? Where are our sidhe? In the afterword, Heneghan alludes to the possibility of additional manuscripts that could turn up in the future. I surely hope for the chance to glimpse through the pleats once more.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating and absorbing tale of Irish folklore. A tale of the faeries and rock giants inhabiting the Sidhelands and their intimate connections (through “pleated light”) with the human-inhabited Otherlands is woven from translations of ancient manuscripts. A powerful debut novel.