{"product_id":"the-speckled-people-a-memoir-of-a-halfirish-childhood-isbn-9780007156634","title":"The Speckled People: A Memoir of a Half-Irish Childhood","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“A terrific achievement, thoughtful and compelling, smart and original, beautifully written.” —Nick Hornby\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Astonishing. . . a landmark in Irish nonfiction. . . a masterpiece.” — \u003cem\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA 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.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBorn 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor 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, \u003cem\u003eThe Speckled People\u003c\/em\u003e stands among the most fiercely original memoirs to emerge this decade.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e\"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.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“The long wait for this most talented novelist to cast his eye over his homeland has been worth it.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGQ\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Full of several different kinds of passion with a real tragedy at its heart.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMargaret Forster\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A fine and timely book from an exquisitely gifted writer...beautiful, subtle, unflashy, perfectly realized and quite extraordinarily powerful.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eJoseph O’Connor\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A prize—delicate, achingly well-observed and wonderfully moving.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eA.L. Kennedy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The most gripping book I’ve read in ages...a fascinating, disturbing and often very funny memoir.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eRoddy Doyle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“An astonishing achievement...a landmark in Irish nonfiction…a masterpiece.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A complex and layered story, intriguingly different from all those other Irish-childhood memoirs.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eOrlando Sentinel\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A terrific achievement, thoughtful and compelling, smart and original, beautifully written.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNick Hornby\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A masterpiece.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Never clichéd, thanks largely to Hamilton’s frankly poetic language and masterful portait of childhood…a beautiful memoir.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A memoir of childhood that often reads like a craftily composed work of fiction.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph (London)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A fine reminder that there are many ways of being Irish.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Newsday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The rare quality of this memoir owes much to [Hamilton’s] novelistic skills, not least his handling of the child’s point of view throughout, with its luminously comprehending attentiveness to adult behavior…the cumulative effect is to elevate an act of scrupulous remembering into a work of art.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Unlike most Irish memoirs, this one is devoid of sentimentality. Which doesn’t make it any the less heartrending. ” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePhiladelphia Inquirer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eThe Speckled People\u003c\/em\u003e stands head and shoulders above the ruck of memoirs pouring out of Ireland….an accomplished work of art and a strange tale brilliantly told.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A memoir of warmth and wisdom...tender and profound and, best of all, tells the truth. I loved it.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePatrick McCabe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A masterful piece of work—timely, inventive, provocative and perfectly weighted. Don’t be surprised if it becomes a classic.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eColum McCann\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“An astonishing account, both delicate and strong, of great issues of twentieth-century Europe, modern Ireland, and family everywhere.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNuala O'Faolain\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Triumphantly avoids the \u003cem\u003eAngela’s Ashes\u003c\/em\u003e style of sentimental nostalgia and victim claims... stands up well in the mighty, unending competition for most memorable Irish life-story.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGuardian (London)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A wonderful, subtle, problematic and humane book....about Ireland...about a particular family...about alternatives and complexities anywhere.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eIrish Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Evocative, agitating and inspiriting, Speckled People sticks up for diversity and principled dissent...extending the scope of Irish memoir.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eIndependent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44887584506085,"sku":"NP9780007156634","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780007156634.jpg?v=1730227013","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-speckled-people-a-memoir-of-a-halfirish-childhood-isbn-9780007156634","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}