Hugo Hamilton

Hugo Hamilton was born in Co. Dublin where he still lives. His father, an ardent Irish nationalist, forbade his children to speak English at home, while his German mother, scarred by her own traumatic experience of the Second World War, preached the need for reconciliation. Hamilton left Ireland for Germany in the 1970s and only returned to Dublin in the mid 1980s. His first three novels, Surrogate City (1990), The Last Shot (1991), winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, and The Love Test (1996), are set in Germany and bear testimony to a changing society still haunted by the past. His latest novel, Disguise (2008), returns to this familiar theme. Hamilton's memoirs, The Speckled People (2003) and The Sailor in the Wardrobe (2006), in turn, are informed by an acute awareness of the historical, cultural and linguistic dimensions of his Irish-German inheritance and to many critics offered a long overdue revision of the terms 'identity', 'cultural diversity', and 'Irish'. Both memoirs have become bestsellers and have fascinated readers all over the world. The Speckled People won the prestigious Prix Femina étranger in France, as well as the Berto prize in Italy and has been translated into 15 languages to date. Hamilton has also published a collection of short stories, Dublin Where the Palm Trees Grow (1996), and two detective novels set in Dublin, Headbanger (1997) and Sad Bastard (1998). His latest novel, Every Single Minute, was published in 2014 by Harper Collins. Hugo Hamilton is a member of Aosdána, the affiliation of creative artists in Ireland. For more information, please visit www.hugohamilton.net.