Every Single Minute

Description

'Not only haunted by death, but also by beauty and the strangeness of being alive. A deeply memorable novel' Colm Toibin '... I have friends and family, I am in this wonderful country, I have money, there is nothing much wrong with me except I am dying.' Una has little over a week left to live and wants to see Berlin for the first and last time. Her friend Liam accompanies her. As the city streets open up to them, so too do their pasts. Una recalls her life - her lovers, her famous father, her alcoholic mother and the death of her younger brother. For Liam the weekend becomes a lesson in true living from a friend he is about to lose.

Hugo Hamilton is the author of nine novels, two memoirs and a collection of short stories. His work has won a number of international awards, including the 1992 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the 2003 french Prix Femina Etranger, the 2004 Italian premio Giuseppe Berto and a DAAD scholarship in Berlin. He has also worked as a writer-in-residence at Trinity College, Dublin. Hamilton was born and lives in Dublin.

'A profound and moving portrait ... He has brought those Berlin days back to irrepressible, complicated, poignant life' Observer 'Told with economy and directness, it takes the reader to the heart of things ... Ordinary moments take on great significance in this tale, which is as much about living in the moment as it is about revisiting the past' Sunday Times 'Hamilton remains one of the most unpredictable and interesting of Irish writers ... 'Every Single Minute' is a brave and contemplative novel' Irish Times