Ursula Hegi – författare

Floating in My Mother's Palm is the compelling and mystical story of Hanna Malter, a young girl growing up in 1950's Burgdorf, the small German town Ursula Hegi so brilliantly brought to life in her bestselling novel Stones from the River. Hanna's courageous voice evokes her unconventional mother, who swims during thunderstorms; the illegitimate son of an American GI, who learns from Hanna about his father; and the librarian, Trudi Montag, who lets Hanna see her hometown from a dwarf's extraordinary point of view. Although Ursula Hegi wrote Floating in My Mother's Palm first, it can be read as a sequel to Stones from the River.

The bestselling author of Stones from the River delivers her most ambitious and dramatic novel yet -- the unforgettable story of an endearing, but also flawed, Italian American family. In December 1953 Anthony Amedeo''s world is nested in his Bronx neighborhood, his parents'' Studebaker, the Paradise Theater, Yankee Stadium -- and in his imagination, where he longs for a stencil kit to decorate the windows like all the other kids on his street. Instead he gets a very different present: his uncle Malcolm''s family. Malcolm is in jail for stealing -- once again -- from his last new job, and Anthony''s aunt and twin cousins settle into the Amedeos'' fifth-floor walk-up. Sharing a room with girls is excruciating for Anthony, despite his affinity for the twins. But the real change in Anthony''s life comes one evening when he causes the unthinkable to happen, changing each family member''s life forever. Evoking all the plenty and optimism of postwar America, Sacred Time spans three generations, taking us from the Bronx of the 1950s to contemporary Brooklyn. Keenly observing the dark side of family as well as its gracefulness, Hegi has outdone herself with this captivating novel about childhood''s tenderness and the landscape of loneliness. Ultimately she reveals how the transforming power of a singular event can reverberate through a family for generations. With gravity and poise, Hegi turns her astute yet forgiving eye on the essential frailty and dignity of the human condition in this elegant and fast-paced novel.

For fans of Anne Tyler, Patricia Gaffney and Sue Miller, a riveting family saga set in the Italian-American community of the Bronx - from the internationally bestselling author of STONES FROM THE RIVER.

The bestselling author of Stones From the River delivers her most ambitious and dramatic novel yet -- the unforgettable story of an endearing, but flawed, Italian American family. In December 1953 Anthony Amedeo''s world is nested in his Bronx neighborhood, his parent''s Studebaker, the Paradise Theater, Yankee Stadium -- and in his imaginatin, where he longs for a stencil kit to decorate the windows like all the other kids on his street. Instead, he gets a very different present: his uncle Malcolm''s family. Malcolm is in jail for stealing -- once again -- from his latest new job, and Anthony''s aunt and twin cousins settle into the Amedeos'' fifth floor walk-up. Sharing a room with girls is excruciating for Anthony, despite his affinity for the twins. But the real change in Anthony''s life comes one evening when he causes the unthinkable to happen, changing each family member''s life forever. Evoking all the plenty and optimism of postwar America, Sacred Time spans three generations, taking us from the Bronx of the 1950s to contemporary Brooklyn. Keenly observing the dark side of family -- and its gracefulness -- Hegi has outdone herself with this captivating novel about childhood''s tenderness and the landscape of loneliness. Hegi reveals how the transforming power of a singular event can reverberate through a family for generations.

The bestselling author of Stones from the River and The Vision of Emma Blau renews her reputation as an extraordinary writer of short stories in this major collection that balances her reader on the magical border of laughter and sorrow.In Hotel of the Saints, Hegi enters the perspectives of lovers and loners, eccentrics and artists, children and parents: a musician tries to protect her daughter from loving a blind man; a seminary student yearns for the certainty of faith that belonged to him as a boy; a woman transcends her embarrassment for her first love, who has tripled in size.Ursula Hegi''s bicultural background enriches these eleven luminous stories that are set in Europe, Mexico, and the United States. Her characters take risks in searching out the unique places where faith thrives for each of them -- a rundown hotel, the currents of Cabo San Lucas, the embrace of an ex-convict. And once again, she surrounds them with her elegant language and exquisite images.

Salt Dancers is at once a brilliant portrait of an American family, a story of the secrets families guard, and a moving account of one woman''s journey back to a past filled with elusive memories and suppressed rage. Why did Julia''s mother disappear one day without so much as a word? How did a loving father who taught her such a beautiful thing as the salt dance become such a terrifying and abusive presence? These are the questions which Julia must confront when she returns to Spokane, Washington, after an absence of twenty-three years. Salt Dancers, a superbly written novel, is a poignant and truthful chronicle of self-discovery and the power of resurrection.

Floating in My Mother''s Palm is the compelling and mystical story of Hanna Malter, a young girl growing up in 1950''s Burgdorf, the small German town Ursula Hegi so brilliantly brought to life in her bestselling novel Stones from the River.Hanna''s courageous voice evokes her unconventional mother, who swims during thunderstorms; the illegitimate son of an American GI, who learns from Hanna about his father; and the librarian, Trudi Montag, who lets Hanna see her hometown from a dwarf''s extraordinary point of view. Although Ursula Hegi wrote Floating in My Mother''s Palm first, it can be read as a sequel to Stones from the River.

From the acclaimed author of The Worst Thing I''ve Done and Children and Fire, a stunning story about ordinary people living in extraordinary times—“epic, daring, magnificent, the product of a defining and mesmerizing vision” (Los Angeles Times).Trudi Montag is a Zwerg—a dwarf—short, undesirable, different, the voice of anyone who has ever tried to fit in. Eventually she learns that being different is a secret that all humans share—from her mother who flees into madness, to her friend Georg whose parents pretend he’s a girl, to the Jews Trudi harbors in her cellar. Ursula Hegi brings us a daring, dramatic, and complex novel of life in Germany through an unspeakable time, weaving together a profound tapestry of emotional power, humanity, and truth.

The fourth novel in Ursula Hegi’s acclaimed Burgdorf cycle is “a thoughtful, sidelong approach to the worst moment in Germany’s history that invites us to understand how decent people come to collaborate with evil” (Kirkus Reviews).Children and Fire tells the story of one day that will forever transform the lives of the people in Burgdorf, Germany, the fictitious village by the river in Ursula Hegi’s bestselling novels. February 27, 1934—the first anniversary of the burning of Reichstag, the Parliament building in Berlin. Thekla Jansen, a gifted young teacher, loves her students and tries to protect them from the chaos beyond their village. Believing the Nazis’ new regime will not last forever, Thekla begins to relinquish some of her freedoms to keep her teaching position. She has always taken her moral courage for granted, but when each compromise chips away at that courage, she knows she must reclaim it. Ursula Hegi funnels pivotal moments in history through the experience of Thekla, her students, and the townspeople as she writes along the edge where sorrow and bliss meet, and shows us how one society—educated, cultural, compassionate—can slip into a reality that’s fabricated by propaganda and controlled by fear. Gorgeously rendered and emotionally taut, Children and Fire confirms Ursula Hegi’s position as one of the most distinguished writers of her generation.

The Burgdorf Cycle Boxed Set by Ursula Hegi brings together her four novels set in Burgdorf, Germany that explore the consequences of Hitler’s reign and the ramifications of World War II.

Friends since earliest childhood, Annie, Jake, and Mason have a special bond. When Annie''s parents die on the same night that she and Mason get married, the three friends decide to raise Annie''s infant sister, Opal, together. Not surprisingly, their bonds of intimacy, already deeply entangled, become strained. As Annie struggles, events take on a momentum of their own. And then, one fateful night, the three friends goad each other into stepping over a line, with shocking consequences for each of them.

Friends since childhood, Annie, Jake and Mason had a special bond that transcended all other relationships. When Annie''s parents die on her and Mason''s wedding night, the three friends decide to raise Annie''s infant sister, Opal, together. Entangled relationships ensue between them and Annie struggles to be both a sister and a mother to Opal. And then, on one fateful night, the friends step over a line that has shocking, unforeseen consequences. Beautifully written and brilliantly vivid, this truth-telling and engaging novel of friendship, love and death and -- ultimately -- of resilience and understanding, will resonate long after each character tells their story.