Hugo Hamilton

"A novel in which a book-a first edition of Joseph Roth's masterpiece Rebellion-narrates its own astonishing life story, from 1930s Germany to the present day as an American artist returns to Berlin, the book's birthplace, to decipher a mystery on its last page"--

The Pages

"We wear Aran Sweaters and Lederhosen. We are forbidden from speaking English. We are trapped in a language war. We are the Speckled People." In one of the most original memoirs to emerge in years, Hugo Hamilton tells the haunting story of his German-Irish childhood in 1950s Dublin. His Gaelic-speaking, Irish nationalist father rules the home with tyranny, while his German-speaking mother rescues her children with cakes and stories of her own struggle against Nazi Germany. Out on the streets of Dublin is another country, where they are taunted as Nazis and subjected to a mock Nuremberg trial. Through the eyes of a child, this rare and shockingly honest book gradually makes sense of family, language, and identity, unlocking at last the secrets that his parents kept in the wardrobe.

A Memoir of a Half-Irish Childhood

The Speckled People

Pages

Der Matrose im Schrank

'This is the most gripping book I've read in ages ... It is beautifully written, fascinating, disturbing and often very funny.' Roddy Doyle

Dublin Palms

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.

A novel

Following on from 'The Speckled People', Hugo Hamilton's new memoir has, at its heart, the story of a summer he spent working at a local harbour in Dublin, at a time of tremendous fear and mistrust.

The Sailor in the Wardrobe

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. 'A little too far ahead of the curve for their own good' - Declan Burke, Crime Always Pays

Sad Bastard

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. 'A little too far ahead of the curve for their own good' - Declan Burke , Crime Always Pays

Headbanger

Surrogate City

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. ' From 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.

A Memoir

The Harbor Boys

You have a funny way of doing things here.

Hand in the Fire

‘Not only haunted by death, but also by beauty and the strangeness of being alive. A deeply memorable novel’ Colm Tóibín

Every Single Minute

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.

The palm trees give the street a holiday atmosphere. There must be something in the soil they like. They have straight leaves that get a bit ragged, with split ends. At night you hear them rattling in the wind.

Adapted by the author from his memoir with the same title.

A deeply moving memoir about a young boy growing up in Dublin and his family's homesickness for a country they can call their own.

‘This is the most gripping book I've read in ages ... It is beautifully written, fascinating, disturbing and often very funny.’ Roddy Doyle

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

Hugo Hamilton

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