Book Club reads “The Speckled People”

Book Club reads “The Speckled People” | 16/10/2020 | 2:40 pm-4:10 pm

Book Club reads "The Speckled People"

The October read for the book club is “The Speckled People” by Hugo Hamilton.

The childhood world of Hugo Hamilton, born and brought up in Dublin, is a confusing place. His father, a sometimes brutal Irish nationalist, demands his children speak Gaelic, while his mother a softly spoken German immigrant, marked by the Nazi past, speaks to them in German. He personally prefers to speak English. English is, after all, what the other children in Dublin speak. English is what they use when they hunt him down in the streets and dub him Eichmann, as they bring him to trial and sentence him to death at a mock seaside court.

Out of this fear and guilt and often comical cultural entanglements, he tries to understand the differences between Irish history and German history and turn the twisted logic of what he is told into truth. It is a journey that ends in liberation, but not before he uncovers the long-buried secrets that lie at the bottom of his parents wardrobe.

To join the book club please send an email to the group coordinator here.


Location: English-language Library in Angers