The Sailor in the Wardrobe
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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 motherâs shame at the hands of Allied soldiers in the aftermath of the Second World War, along with his German cousinâs 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 fatherâs 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 â 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.
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Hugo Hamilton was born and grew up in Dublin. He is the author of five highly acclaimed novels: 'Surrogate City', 'The Last Shot' and 'The Love Test' (Faber); 'Headbanger' and 'Sad Bastard' (Secker); one collection of short stories; and the internationally acclaimed memoir, 'The Speckled People'. In 1992 he was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.
