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[Every Single Minute] [By: Hamilton, Hugo] [January, 2014]
‘… 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.’‘Every Single Minute’ is a novel by inspired by the force of honesty – a moving portrait of an Irish writer dying of cancer. Visiting Berlin for the first and last time, she is remembered, in prose of arresting directness, by the book’s narrator.Touring the city, Úna strives still to understand the tragic death of her younger brother. At last, at a performance of the opera ‘Don Carlo’, she realises the true cost of letting memory dictate the course of her life.From the author of ‘The Speckled People’ the uplifting and heartbreaking, ‘Every Single Minute’ is the story of a candid friendship, full of affection and humour, and of reconciliation, hard-won at long last.
Hardcover
First published September 22, 2014
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About the author
Hugo Hamilton
38 books90 followersHugo Hamilton is an Irish writer.
Hamilton's mother was a German who travelled to Ireland in 1949 for a pilgrimage, married an Irishman, and settled in the country. His father was a militant nationalist who insisted that his children should speak only German or Irish, but not English, a prohibition the young Hugo resisted inwardly. "The prohibition against English made me see that language as a challenge. Even as a child I spoke to the walls in English and secretly rehearsed dialogue I heard outside," he wrote later.
As a consequence of this, he grew up with three languages - English, Irish and German - and a sense of never really belonging to any: "There were no other children like me, no ethnic groups that I could attach myself to".
Hamilton became a journalist, and then a writer of short stories and novels. His first three novels were set in Central Europe. Then came Headbanger (1996), a darkly comic crime novel set in Dublin and featuring detective Pat Coyne. A sequel, Sad Bastard, followed in 1998.
Following a year spent in Berlin on a cultural scholarship, he completed his memoir of childhood, The Speckled People (2003), which went on to achieve widespread international acclaim. Telling the story through the eyes of his childhood self, it painfully evoked the struggle to make sense of a bizarre adult world. It "triumphantly avoids the Angela's Ashes style of sentimental nostalgia and victim claims," wrote Hermione Lee in the The Guardian . "The cumulative effect is to elevate an act of scrupulous remembering into a work of art," commented James Lasdun in the New York Times. The story is picked up in the 2006 volume, The Sailor in the Wardrobe.
In May 2007, German publisher Luchterhand published Die redselige Insel (The Talkative Island), in which Hamilton retraced the journey Heinrich Böll made in Ireland that was to be the basis of his bestselling book Irisches Tagebuch (Irish Journal) in 1957. Hamilton's most recent novel, Disguise was published on June 6, 2008.
Hugo Hamilton lives in Dublin, Ireland.
Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ham...
Hamilton's mother was a German who travelled to Ireland in 1949 for a pilgrimage, married an Irishman, and settled in the country. His father was a militant nationalist who insisted that his children should speak only German or Irish, but not English, a prohibition the young Hugo resisted inwardly. "The prohibition against English made me see that language as a challenge. Even as a child I spoke to the walls in English and secretly rehearsed dialogue I heard outside," he wrote later.
As a consequence of this, he grew up with three languages - English, Irish and German - and a sense of never really belonging to any: "There were no other children like me, no ethnic groups that I could attach myself to".
Hamilton became a journalist, and then a writer of short stories and novels. His first three novels were set in Central Europe. Then came Headbanger (1996), a darkly comic crime novel set in Dublin and featuring detective Pat Coyne. A sequel, Sad Bastard, followed in 1998.
Following a year spent in Berlin on a cultural scholarship, he completed his memoir of childhood, The Speckled People (2003), which went on to achieve widespread international acclaim. Telling the story through the eyes of his childhood self, it painfully evoked the struggle to make sense of a bizarre adult world. It "triumphantly avoids the Angela's Ashes style of sentimental nostalgia and victim claims," wrote Hermione Lee in the The Guardian . "The cumulative effect is to elevate an act of scrupulous remembering into a work of art," commented James Lasdun in the New York Times. The story is picked up in the 2006 volume, The Sailor in the Wardrobe.
In May 2007, German publisher Luchterhand published Die redselige Insel (The Talkative Island), in which Hamilton retraced the journey Heinrich Böll made in Ireland that was to be the basis of his bestselling book Irisches Tagebuch (Irish Journal) in 1957. Hamilton's most recent novel, Disguise was published on June 6, 2008.
Hugo Hamilton lives in Dublin, Ireland.
Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ham...
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 21, 2015
So, as the blurb suggests the book follows the trip to Berlin shared by Una and Liam. The two set off for a few days with Una suffering from metastatic cancer, high on Xanax and after refusing chemotherapy wanting to take one last trip. The book follows the two as they find their way sightseeing around the city. Una is constantly re-evaluating the eminence of the ending of her life whilst her and Liam reminisce about the past especially the difficult memories of her parents and also Liam’s life also. The writing has a poetic and tender honesty to it. There are a number of scenes that stick; one where Una is in a field of cowslips and demands that Liam takes off her shoes. She is adamant but he prevails that she will get pneumonia. The juxtaposition between the two and the stages in their lives is wonderful and Liam’s constant evaluation that she is giving him life by her soon passing is a saddening but honest touch. The shared time together is both precarious and thoughtful; the ringing of the church bells, the taste of chocolate, the warming up of Una is bath, it’s very personal. It’s a little bubble of the two.
But, for me this personal touching tribute jars with the writing and the personalities of the two characters. Hugo writes with poetic style but it lacks a little something. He describes looking after her in minute detail; clipping her toenails, taking her in and out of the taxi, passing her the clear bag that holds all of her things. It feels mundane and tedious. Additionally the two don’t seem to communicate in a way that would make them friends? It sounds terrible but they scrap and argue. She berates him for loving his daughter too much and he argues with her for not forgiving her parents. All the time they are wading through Berlin and it makes you wonder what was Hamilton trying to achieve through this book. Maybe honesty but it’s not coming across too well.
Towards the end there is a sudden and slightly shocking confession from Liam about his own life. Although I cannot comment as to whether it is true, if it is, I think it could have been worked on from the beginning because it could have made the story feel all the more synchronised. Instead it feels like it has been jostled in at the end. The ending also just fades. It doesn’t feel like it ends only that it just peters out. It means the end feels unjustified and lost. It makes me angry because this could have ended so differently and affected me so much more.
But, for me this personal touching tribute jars with the writing and the personalities of the two characters. Hugo writes with poetic style but it lacks a little something. He describes looking after her in minute detail; clipping her toenails, taking her in and out of the taxi, passing her the clear bag that holds all of her things. It feels mundane and tedious. Additionally the two don’t seem to communicate in a way that would make them friends? It sounds terrible but they scrap and argue. She berates him for loving his daughter too much and he argues with her for not forgiving her parents. All the time they are wading through Berlin and it makes you wonder what was Hamilton trying to achieve through this book. Maybe honesty but it’s not coming across too well.
Towards the end there is a sudden and slightly shocking confession from Liam about his own life. Although I cannot comment as to whether it is true, if it is, I think it could have been worked on from the beginning because it could have made the story feel all the more synchronised. Instead it feels like it has been jostled in at the end. The ending also just fades. It doesn’t feel like it ends only that it just peters out. It means the end feels unjustified and lost. It makes me angry because this could have ended so differently and affected me so much more.
October 28, 2019
I'm sorry, but this book did nothing for me. Reading through the other reviews, I suppose it makes a world of difference whether you know Nuala O'Faolain or not, but I had never heard of her before, so I could not appreciate the veiled memoir aspect of the novel. To me, it was a strange, dull story about two friends who travel to Berlin. They are mistaken for mother and son. They care about each other, but bicker a lot. One of them is dying of cancer. One of them is going through a midlife crisis. Although they tick off Berlin's major sights, it's not really a travelouge. It's more about existential biographical issues in their respective lives. So Una blames her parents for her brother's death, and she has this obsession with Don Carlos (the opera), but we don't find out the details, which is probably a good thing, as I don't think I would have cared to find out more.
On the other hand, there are some minute but trivial descriptions of what the narrator perceives about his surroundings, information that did nothing for me. It was not necessary to keep tabs on every single minute they spend in Berlin. I know, don't judge a book by its cover, but I thought that both the title and the brittle cover of the book were very apt. To me, it was a tedious read which didn't move me at all.
On the other hand, there are some minute but trivial descriptions of what the narrator perceives about his surroundings, information that did nothing for me. It was not necessary to keep tabs on every single minute they spend in Berlin. I know, don't judge a book by its cover, but I thought that both the title and the brittle cover of the book were very apt. To me, it was a tedious read which didn't move me at all.
July 13, 2014
Contemplative but frustrating with a studied style that hovers between enlightenment and pretension.
August 12, 2017
Although fiction I read this more as a memoir about the author's journey to Berlin with another author, Nuala O'Faolan who has terminal cancer. It's a strange book, haunting in places and rather too detailed in some. However, it is an interesting glimpse into one person facing imminent death and her friend. The knowledge of her death permeates every page and knowing that she is soon to die has taken all the goodness out of her life. "Everything went black. What was the point of it all?.. she said it was like a door closing." Bleak but honest.
I detect a philosophy running through the book that likens life to simply a set of stories, which probably isn't surprising as they were both authors. "Because that's all there is, the stories we tell about ourselves, the stories that are told about us, the stories we tell about each other. And the stories withheld. The stories we have to make up because they have been kept from us."
"everybody is the sum of their own story and people are nothing more than walking stories."
"Its not in my hands to shape the story that people remember me."
I detect a philosophy running through the book that likens life to simply a set of stories, which probably isn't surprising as they were both authors. "Because that's all there is, the stories we tell about ourselves, the stories that are told about us, the stories we tell about each other. And the stories withheld. The stories we have to make up because they have been kept from us."
"everybody is the sum of their own story and people are nothing more than walking stories."
"Its not in my hands to shape the story that people remember me."
July 22, 2018
Je ne m'attendais pas à cela, alors là pas du tout!
Un voyage plus symbolique que touristique, métaphore du recul que l'on doit s'imposer pour pouvoir effectuer une rétrospection objective de la trajectoire de notre vie.
Una, mourante, refuse d'abandonner les fantômes du passé et de pardonner. Avec Liam poussant sa chaise roulante entre les monuments berlinois, ils évoquent la patrie et l'enfance sans réel détachement car trop absorbés par la culpabilité et par le doute. Quand les deux fuites inavouées collisionnent; stupeur et tremblements!
Le narrateur alterne entre les deux passés; celui du voyage qu'il raconte, et celui encore qui le précède, le passé des souvenirs enfouis et des confidences. J'ai eu personnellement du mal à suivre les sauts entre les deux mais j'ai apprécié les histoires complexes et la narration qui dévoile petit à petit l'intrigue.
Un voyage plus symbolique que touristique, métaphore du recul que l'on doit s'imposer pour pouvoir effectuer une rétrospection objective de la trajectoire de notre vie.
Una, mourante, refuse d'abandonner les fantômes du passé et de pardonner. Avec Liam poussant sa chaise roulante entre les monuments berlinois, ils évoquent la patrie et l'enfance sans réel détachement car trop absorbés par la culpabilité et par le doute. Quand les deux fuites inavouées collisionnent; stupeur et tremblements!
Le narrateur alterne entre les deux passés; celui du voyage qu'il raconte, et celui encore qui le précède, le passé des souvenirs enfouis et des confidences. J'ai eu personnellement du mal à suivre les sauts entre les deux mais j'ai apprécié les histoires complexes et la narration qui dévoile petit à petit l'intrigue.
December 3, 2016
A (younger) man and a dying woman in Berlin, looking back at their lives and exploring something together for the last time. Without doubt this book was well written, as I think it managed to convey the mood, feelings and thoughts by the way it was written. Nevertheless, I did not enjoy reading it - first it made me restless because the pace was so slow, then it irritated me because there were so many family secrets that were revealed.
October 9, 2025
I adored this book. Based on a trip the author took to Berlin with Nuala O'Faolain a short time before her death- what struck me most was how full of life this story was. Yes there is grief and regret, but the curiosity and need for life, dirty and noisy, is what shone through. This is one I'll definitely come back to.
(Picked up second-hand on a lunchtime browse through the wonderful chaos of The Last Bookshop on Dublin's Camden Street)
(Picked up second-hand on a lunchtime browse through the wonderful chaos of The Last Bookshop on Dublin's Camden Street)
August 5, 2023
This book was fine. Not so boring that i didn't finish it, but not all that interesting either
February 13, 2017
In this "blurred portrait" of Irish writer and journalist Nuala O'Faolain, Hugo Hamilton uses his spare, poetic prose to write a fictionalized account of the days he spent with O'Faolain on a trip to Berlin at the end of her life from metastatic cancer.
Though a novel about characters Una and Liam, it was impossible for me to read this as anything other than truth and to feel grateful for the view I was given into her last days and into the time these two admirable writers shared. These are the sorts of private moments fans often hunger for but are rarely indulged, and were it any other sort of personality or celebrity, it might feel like a violation. But because O'Faolain was so confessional in her own writing--so inclined to share her life with strangers--it reads instead like a gift from the author to the world, and maybe a gift to O'Faolain's memory. Though that memory is not sanitized or polished for us. We see both her virtues and her flaws, as well as "Liam's."
For anyone who has read O'Faolain or heard her speak, they will recognize her easily in this book because Hamilton has painted her so carefully. His unique style--the images that become almost characters themselves (the description of the see-thru bag she carries throughout Berlin, the red Converse she wears, his ball cap perched on her head), and Berlin acts as a perfect backdrop to the weighty matter of assessing one's life at the end of that life. Readers who are fans of either Hamilton or O'Faolain will not be disappointed here.
It is difficult for me to know if I would have given the book a five-star rating if I hadn't read both authors previously/extensively and if I hadn't heard them both speak, but I'm inclined to think Hamilton's artistry is strong enough here to earn that five-star rating even if the book really had just been about a couple of characters called Una and Liam, discussing their lives while knocking about Berlin. It is a book I will return to.
Though a novel about characters Una and Liam, it was impossible for me to read this as anything other than truth and to feel grateful for the view I was given into her last days and into the time these two admirable writers shared. These are the sorts of private moments fans often hunger for but are rarely indulged, and were it any other sort of personality or celebrity, it might feel like a violation. But because O'Faolain was so confessional in her own writing--so inclined to share her life with strangers--it reads instead like a gift from the author to the world, and maybe a gift to O'Faolain's memory. Though that memory is not sanitized or polished for us. We see both her virtues and her flaws, as well as "Liam's."
For anyone who has read O'Faolain or heard her speak, they will recognize her easily in this book because Hamilton has painted her so carefully. His unique style--the images that become almost characters themselves (the description of the see-thru bag she carries throughout Berlin, the red Converse she wears, his ball cap perched on her head), and Berlin acts as a perfect backdrop to the weighty matter of assessing one's life at the end of that life. Readers who are fans of either Hamilton or O'Faolain will not be disappointed here.
It is difficult for me to know if I would have given the book a five-star rating if I hadn't read both authors previously/extensively and if I hadn't heard them both speak, but I'm inclined to think Hamilton's artistry is strong enough here to earn that five-star rating even if the book really had just been about a couple of characters called Una and Liam, discussing their lives while knocking about Berlin. It is a book I will return to.
June 10, 2014
Wonderful book. Loved it.
February 27, 2015
Magnifique hommage a Nuala O'Faolain.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews