Kirjahaku

The memoir of Hugo Hamilton, which details his life as a young boy growing up in Dublin and his family's homesickness for a country they can call their own.

"A terrific achievement, thoughtful and compelling, smart and original, beautifully written." --Nick Hornby"Astonishing. . . a landmark in Irish nonfiction. . . a masterpiece." -- Washington PostA deeply moving and critically acclaimed memoir about a young boy growing up in 1950's Dublin with a German mother and fiercely republican Irish father.Born to an Irish father and German mother, Hugo Hamilton and his brother and sister grew up being just about the only children in 1950's Dublin wearing Aran sweaters and Lederhosen. Their father, a Gaelic speaking Irish nationalist, forbid them from talking to their friends in English. And their mother, a soft-spoken immigrant who escaped late 1930s Nazi Germany, baked German cakes and told wistful stories of a country that no longer existed.For Hugo, childhood seemed like an ongoing struggle to understand what it meant to be "one of the speckled people"--his father's phrase to describe "the New Irish, partly from Ireland and partly from somewhere else." A rare and shockingly honest account of a child's attempt to make sense of his family, language and identity, The Speckled People stands among the most fiercely original memoirs to emerge this decade.

In this remarkable book, Hugo Hamilton tells the story of individuals caught up in the turbulent last days of World War II.

Following on from the success of ‘The Speckled People’, Hugo Hamilton's new memoir recounts the summer he spent working at a local harbour in Ireland, at a time of tremendous fear and mistrust. Young Hugo longs to be released from the confused identity he has inherited from his German mother and Irish father, but the backdrop of his mother’s shame at the hands of Allied soldiers in the aftermath of the Second World War, along with his German cousin’s mysterious disappearance somewhere on the Irish West Coast and the spiralling troubles in the north, seems determined to trap him in history. In an attempt to break free of his past, Hugo rebels against his father’s strict and crusading regime and turns to the exciting new world of rock and roll, still a taboo subject in the family home. His job at the local harbour, rather than offering a welcome respite from his speckled world, entangles him in a bitter feud between two fishermen – one Catholic, one Protestant. Hugo listens to the missing persons bulletins going out on the radio for his German cousin, and watches the unfolding harbour duel end in drowning before he can finally escape the ropes of history.

You have a funny way of doing things here.

`Not only haunted by death, but also by beauty and the strangeness of being alive. A deeply memorable novel' Colm Toibin

‘A rich, strange book. Very truthful and moving’ Tessa Hadley 'A terrific, engrossing novel’ Roddy Doyle ‘A masterpiece’ Sebastian Barry The new novel about the transformative power of art, the weight of history and the strange connection we make with one another from the author of The Speckled People. Narrated in the voice of Joseph Roth's masterpiece Rebellion, Hugo Hamilton's stunning, formally inventive new novel tells the life story of that book, initially rescued from the Nazi book-burning in Berlin in May 1933. It recounts the life of its Austrian-Jewish author, a writer on the run, and his intriguing wife Friederike who fell victim to mental illness. And it tells a multitude of other stories: of Andreas Pum, a barrel-organ player down on his luck; of a young German American woman who finds a small map drawn by hand on its own blank page in the back, a thrilling mystery which will lead her to Berlin, the book's birthplace. The Pages carries profound echoes from the past into the present day and is an inspiring story of the survival of literature over a hundred years.

‘Part thriller, part treasure hunt and part love story … Profound and heartbreaking’ Sunday Times ‘A terrific, engrossing novel’ Roddy Doyle ‘A masterpiece’ Sebastian Barry ‘A rich, strange book. Very truthful and moving’ Tessa Hadley The new novel about the transformative power of art, the weight of history and the strange connection we make with one another, from the author of The Speckled People. The narrator of The Pages is not a human but a book: a first edition of Joseph Roth’s masterpiece Rebellion, rescued from a Nazi book-burning in 1933. In recounting its history, it tells a multitude of stories: of Andreas, the character who lives in its pages; of its current owner, a woman whose discovery of a hand-drawn map in the book begins a thrilling mystery; and of Roth himself, a writer on the run. Together, they form a compelling story about art, nationalism, the weight of history, and the strange connections between us. ‘This book simply must be read. It is magnificent’ Irish Independent ‘A powerful, powerful piece of work’ Colum McCann

"In navigating such turbulent emotional waters, Hamilton proves himself yet again a writer able to touch thousands of hearts as he delves deep into his own." -- USA TodayFrom the author of The Speckled People, one of the most lyrical and affecting memoirs of recent times, comes a powerful, deeply moving, and well-observed account of a young man's determined struggles to place himself in a world of his own making.As a boy, Hugo Hamilton felt a strong desire to be rid of the confused identity he had inherited from his German mother and Irish father. Yet history's determined grip tightened its hold. A job at the harbor, rather than offering him respite, entangled him in a bitter feud between two fishermen--one Catholic, one Protestant. Against the background of the spiraling Troubles in the North, Hugo listened to the missing persons bulletins going out on the radio for his German cousin who mysteriously vanished somewhere on the west coast of Ireland and watched as the unfolding harbor duel moved toward a tragic end.The Harbor Boys brilliantly charts a young man as he battles his emotional inheritance and struggles to forge an identity of his own.

An entirely original novel in which a book--Joseph Roth's masterpiece Rebellion--narrates its own astonishing life story, from 1930s Germany to the present day, at the heart of a gripping mystery. "A powerful, powerful piece of work." --Colum McCann, best-selling author of Apeirogon One old copy of the novel Rebellion sits in Lena Knecht's tote bag, about to accompany her on a journey from New York to Berlin in search of a clue to the hand-drawn map on its last page. It is the brilliantly captivating voice of this novel--a first edition nearly burned by Nazis in May 1933--that is our narrator. Fast-paced and tightly plotted, The Pages brings together a multitude of dazzling characters, real and invented, in a sweeping story of survival, chance, and the joys and struggles of love. At its center are Roth, an Austrian Jewish author on the run, and his wife, Friederike, who falls victim to mental illness as Europe descends into war. With vivid evocations of Germany under Nazism and today, The Pages dramatically illuminates the connections between past and present as it looks at censorship, oppression, and violence. Here is a propulsive, inspiring tale of literature over a hundred years: a novel for book lovers everywhere that will bring a fresh audience to this acclaimed writer.

Fleeing his failed marriage in Berlin, Lukas Dorn revisits the West of Ireland, the place of his honeymoon two decades earlier. While his former wife is being cancelled at work and his daughter is arrested at a street protest, he tries to make sense of his broken life with his journal as his sole companion. His inherited memory of the Nazi Holocaust comes face to face with the present when he meets a refugee from a recent warzone. As Lukas communes with the elements in this wild coastal place, he is forced into a confrontation with the past that will carry him to the edge of existence.Conversation with the Sea speaks with heart-rending tenderness to the present moment, as it explores truth, illusion and the deadly silencing of war in a captivating tale of love in a time of displacement.

Fleeing his failed marriage in Berlin, Lukas Dorn revisits the West of Ireland, the place of his honeymoon two decades earlier. While his former wife is being cancelled at work and his daughter is arrested at a street protest, he tries to make sense of his broken life with his journal as his sole companion. His inherited memory of the Nazi Holocaust comes face to face with the present when he meets a refugee from a recent warzone. As Lukas communes with the elements in this wild coastal place, he is forced into a confrontation with the past that will carry him to the edge of existence. Conversation with the Sea speaks with heart-rending tenderness to the present moment, as it explores truth, illusion and the deadly silencing of war in a captivating tale of love in a time of displacement.

Adapted for the stage from the best-selling memoir, The Speckled People tells a profoundly moving story of a young boy trapped in a language war. Set in 1950s Ireland, this is a gripping, poignant, and at times very funny family drama of homesickness, control and identity. As a young boy, Hugo Hamilton struggles with what it means to be speckled, "half and half... Irish on top and German below."An idealistic Irish father enforces his cultural crusade by forbidding his son to speak English while his German mother tries to rescue him with her warm-hearted humour and uplifting industry. The boy must free himself from his father and from bullies on the street who persecute him with taunts of Nazism. Above all he must free himself from history and from the terrible secrets of his mother and father before he can find a place where he belongs.Surrounded by fear, guilt, and frequently comic cultural entanglements, Hugo tries to understand the differences between Irish history and German history and to turn the strange logic of what he is told into truth. It is a journey that ends in liberation but not before the long-buried secrets at the back of the parents' wardrobe have been laid bare.

Headbanger - Pat Coyne is a Dublin policeman who is passionately devoted to sorting out the world and its problems. For Coyne, such things as cars, crime, pollution and golf are all ominous signs of a disintegrating society. The world is committing suicide, with MTV droning in the background. Coyne's principal mission is to deal with crime, Ireland's biggest growth industry. Though only a cop on the beat, he decides to take on the notorious gang leader, Drummer Cunningham. When a murder investigation leaves detectives clueless, he enters into a personal feud with the underworld, resulting in disastrous consequences for himself and his family. Coyne is a Dublin Dirty Harry for whom everything begins to go wrong. Sad Bastard - Garda Pat Coyne - aka 'Mr Suicide' is back. Injured in the line of duty, he is now out of work with too much time on his hands. Living alone, he's become more obsessive and volatile, developing a fetish for women's knickers. When a body washes up on the docks, the prime suspect is none other than the former Garda's son, Jimmy. Like father like son, both Coynes are notorious for their sweeping spells of self-destruction. But while Pat's motives lean toward cleaning up the world's messes, Jimmy possesses a taste for mayhem. Coyne's estranged wife blames him, his mother-in-law berates him, and his therapist labels him psychotic. But when a duo of criminal thugs try to kill his boy, Coyne decides that it's up to him to straighten things out.

Jahre nach Heinrich Böll begibt sich der deutsch-irische Schriftsteller Hugo Hamilton auf die Spuren des deutschen Nobelpreisträgers und bereist die Grüne Insel. Das Ergebnis ist einerseits eine raffinierte und kunstvolle Spiegelung des Böllschen Tagebuchs, die zeigt, wie vieles heute anders geworden und wie vieles sich dennoch gleichgeblieben ist. Und andererseits bietet der Blick des irischen Autors mit deutschen Wurzeln eine ganz besondere Perspektive, die mit ironischer Selbstkritik auf beide Seiten schaut und zu höchst vergnüglichen Erkenntnissen kommt.

"De spräckliga är en fängslande och bitvis mycket rolig roman. Barndomsskildringar är nästan omöjliga att skriva utan att det blir antingen sött eller pompöst, men Hamilton hör till de få som lyckats. ... En närmast hisnande berättelse om hur en familj sitter fast i historiens skruvstäd". Ola Larsmo i Dagens Nyheter "Fullständigt fri från sentimentalitet skriver Hamilton in sin familj i en historia fylld av språkets sprängkraft och individens envisa motstånd." Johanna Gredfors Ottesen i Helsingborgs Dagblad "Med känslig penna skildrar han familjens brokiga bakgrund. Sökandet efter en egen identitet blir här både gripande och märkligt livsbejakande." Elin Swedenmark i Kattis & Co. "Vi är den tysk-iriska historien. Vi är den engelsk-iriska historien också ... Vi är som barm brack, hembakt irländskt bröd med tyska russin ... Vi har inte bara ett språk och en historia. Vi sover på tyska och vi drömmerpå iriska. Vi skrattar på iriska och vi gråter på tyska. Vi är tysta på tyska och vi talar på engelska. Vi är spräckliga."I sin hyllade memoarbok De spräckliga(2003) skildrar Hugo Hamilton sina barndomsår i 1950-talets Dublin. Kluven mellan den obeveklige faderns iriska nationalism och den kärleksfulla moderns tyska förflutna förmedlar författaren med barnets blick en hel familjs längtan efter ett land och ett språk som den kan kalla sitt eget.Hugo Hamilton föddes 1953 i Dublin, där han idag är bosattoch verksam som författare. Sitt stora genombrott fick han med De spräckliga, den första av hans tio böcker som översatts till svenska.Översättning: Berit Skogsberg. "A work of art." /James Lasdun, The New York Times Book Review "Hamilton's first masterpiece. To read 'The Speckled People' is to remember why great writing matters. A book of our times, and probably of all time." /Joseph O'Connor, Daily Mail "An astonishing achievement, clearly a landmark in Irish non-fiction; and I cannot shake the conviction that for years to come it will be seen as a masterpiece. " /Trevor Butterworth, Washington Post "An astonishing achievement [...] A wonderful, subtle, problematic and humane book.It is about Ireland as well as about a particular family, but it is also about alternatives and complexities anywhere." /George Szirtes, Irish Times

Efter framgången med hyllade memoarboken De spräckliga följer den irländske författaren Hugo Hamilton upp med Sjömannen i garderoben. I denna starkt berörande berättelse skildrar författaren en sommar som hamnarbetare i Dublin på 1960-talet. Den unge Hugo försöker frigöra sig från den komplicerade identitet han ärvt av sin tyska mor och sin obeveklige, nationalistiske, iriske far. Men moderns kvardröjande skam efter kriget och oroligheterna i Nordirland håller honom fast i historiens grepp. Hugo Hamilton, född 1953 i Dublin, fick sitt stora litterära genombrott med De spräckliga, som förlaget gav ut 2011. Sjömannen i garderoben är hans andra bok på svenska.»En lika milt humoristisk som smärtfylld roman om kampen för ett liv i egen rätt, bortom historiens förbannelser och politikens krav på uppoffring och representativitet.»Borås Tidning»Det är en mycket medryckande och känslofull uppväxtberättelse. Språket är mustigt och berörande.» BTJ-häftet»Vid sidan av drömmarna och mardrömmarna växer berättelsen till ännu en gripande skildring om barndom, uppväxt, tonår och de frigörelseförsök som hela tiden gör att han hamnar i konflikt med sin ömsom dogmatiske, ömsom förlåtande och ödmjuke far. Att hans tyskfödda mor hjälper honom, står på hans sida, blir avgörande. Nu är boken också en förnämlig berättelse om hennes liv i det sönderslagna Tyskland, vad det leder till efter kriget och hennes ambitioner att verkligen bli ett med Irland. Så läst är det både det spräckliga och det migrerande i människors liv som fängslar. Att jag är mycket förtjust i den här boken behöver jag väl knappast säga.»Bloggen Nydahls kustvandringar