Augustus Young – författare

Experienced author and journalist Augustus Young used his travel diaries to produce a semi-fictional story about the people and culture of Brazil in Brazilian Tequila. Gus, a middle-aged Irishman, finds that his life in London has gone cold. An epidemiologist without an epidemic, a poet who cannot write poems, he decides to transmigrate to a warmer climate, namely Brazil, where he hopes to winter himself back to spring. He flies around Brazil, learning things that challenge his preconceptions. Pandemic corruption seeps into everything and nobody seems bothered, including his friend, Pedrinho. Even the first democratic elections for decades are being conspicuously rigged. Throughout his travels, Gus meets the real victims, particularly the poor and the young, and their cheerful passivity take him aback. However, his European side begins to revolt against what he sees as a ‘moral no-man’s-land.’ Torn between his love of being there and his concept of justice, his engagement becomes disturbingly personal. When Gus travels with Pedrinho to his hometown (which is suffering a ten-year drought), it leads to a confrontation and a moral twist that throws his cherished certitudes into confusion. His affections threaten to take over from his principles. How will Gus cope? Will he see Brazil in the same eyes ever again? Inspired by Theodore Roosevelt’s Through the Brazilian Wilderness, Brazilian Tequila will appeal to those who enjoy travel stories and are interested in Brazil.

Diversifications includes a long poem by the author, 'The Long Habit of Living', together with his loose reworking of Mayakovsky's classic long poem 'Cloud in Pants', and some loose translations of Brecht, plus a number of poems "in the manner of Brecht". Each of the book's three sections offer the reader another aspect of Augustus Young, whether the voice be his own, or a kind of ventriloquy.

In 'The Making of an Alter Ego', Augustus Young shines new light on Rilke’s famously perplexing autofiction, 'The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigg', chronicling his own attempts to uncover the story within the story. 'The Notebooks. . .'  has puzzled readers ever since it was penned a century ago. It is about a young poet in the throes of an artistic crisis indirectly drawn from Rilke’s personal and intellectual life. It offers fertile ground for Young’s audacious and indeed virtuosic detective work in unravelling subplots in its composition. Young takes the reader on a journey of discovery into one of literary history’s most singular creative minds. Through an exploration of Rilke’s many correspondences, his relationships with his contemporaries, we are given fresh insight into the man and his most baffling and alluring work. By reordering the elliptical novel’s structure, and through transcriptions of key passages, the reader arrives at Rilke’s creation of an alternative self.This is volume two of 'Things That Happen When Reading Rilke' and follows volume one – 'The Making of a Pure Poet'.