Other People's Countries: A Journey into Memory

13 July, 2015
Author: Patrick McGuinness
Genre: History
Category: Heywood Hill Readers

Recommended by Heywood Hill Reader Adam Freudenheim

'This short, essayistic book is poet and academic Patrick McGuinness's beautifully written and evocative personal history of one village in Belgium across the 20th century. Illustrated with his own black and white photographs throughout, it's a book that's far bigger in scope and resonance than its size and focus might suggest. It's really a mini-history of 20th-century Europe through the eyes and sensibilities of one ordinary Belgian family – told through the eyes of a rather extraordinary writer. Proustian in the best sense of the word – and often very funny too.'

Adam is the publisher and managing director of Pushkin Press. He has worked in publishing since 1998 and was Publisher of Penguin Classics, Modern Classics and Reference from 2004 to 2012. He is perhaps best known for helping to rediscover the work of the German writer Hans Fallada, with the first English-language publication of 'Alone in Berlin'.