A Stranger at My Table: The Postcolonial Story of a Family Caught in the Half-Life of Empires

A Stranger at My Table: The Postcolonial Story of a Family Caught in the Half-Life of EmpiresA highly relevant topic regarding immigration, borders and the shifting definitions of origin and home. Reads like a mystery story as Figueiredo cuts his way with a machete through jungles looking for headstones, travels to the exotic island of Zanzibar with its mix of Swahili, Arab, and British influences and Salig o, Goa, an original post for Portuguese maritime traders. Figueiredo demonstrates that the tragedies specific to inter ethnic and

A highly relevant topic regarding immigration, borders and the shifting definitions of origin and home.

Reads like a mystery story as Figueiredo cuts his way with a machete through jungles looking for headstones, travels to the exotic island of Zanzibar with its mix of Swahili, Arab, and British influences and Salig o, Goa, an original post for Portuguese maritime traders.

Figueiredo demonstrates that the tragedies specific to inter-ethnic and multiracial families nevertheless bear latent gifts for literature and culture when treated with openness, bravery and curiosity.

Family photos punctuate the book, inserted into the prose as oblique commentary and a literary device, giving the book layers of meaning and depth.

This book is the antidote to the pathological narcissism of the Karl Ove Knausgaard "Norwegian reality literature" phenomenon - a searching story with heart about the challenges of families trying to stay together despite the global pressures that continually drive them apart.

Opens the world in a book, with interesting points of colonial history and evocative descriptions woven throughout the author's poignant reflections.

We are along step-by-step in Figueiredo's journey, and are as surprised as he is by the revelations, letters, and occasional repressed memories that surface along the way.

Figueiredo is the critically-acclaimed biographer of Norway's treasured cultural icon, Henrik Ibsen, forthcoming in English with Yale University Press, 2019.

Figueiredo is currently at work on the official biography of Edvard Munch, the most identifiable Norwegian visual artist, which will likely be translated into English as soon as it is published in Norway.

In 2002, Figueiredo was awarded the Brage Prize for a biography of Johan Bernhard Hjort, the co-founder of the Norwegian Fascist Party who later became a resistance fighter and human rights lawyer.

A Stranger at My Table received one of the highest non-fiction honors in Norway, the 2016 Language Prize and was nominated for the Brage Prize that same year.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Doppelhouse Press
Published: 05/28/2019
ISBN: 9780999754474
Pages: 336
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.70h x 5.30w x 0.90d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 04/01/2019