Hamish Hamilton to publish Norwegian literary writer Linn Ullmann

Hamish Hamilton will publish Unquiet, a novel by Linn Ullmann, daughter of film director Ingmar Bergman and actress Liv Ullmann.

Originally published in Ullmann's native Norway, rights to the book have been sold in 26 countries.  

Simon Prosser, publishing director at Hamish Hamilton, bought British and Commonwealth rights including serial and audiobook from Sarah Chalfant at the Wylie Agency. UK publication is scheduled for 3rd September 2020. 

The book is centred around a series of tape-recorded conversations between a father and daughter. The father is a Swedish filmmaker who speaks from his island home at the very end of his life, as he progressively lapses into memory loss and silence.

The book explores birth, death, desire, love, loss, art and parenthood. 

Ullman's novel draws from her own childhood and her journey to adulthood with an absent father and frequently absent mother. 

The author commented: "When my agent called to tell me that Simon Prosser had read Unquiet and wanted to acquire the rights, I was thrilled. The English translation of the novel is especially important to me. I’m very, very proud to be published by Hamish Hamilton in the UK, the publisher of some of the greatest works of contemporary fiction and non-fiction in the world, including a number of my favourite authors. I’ve admired their work from afar for a long time."

Prosser added: "There is something in the book’s clear, calm style and ever-deepening rhythms that enters the reading mind and body in a unique way, and the story is of course autobiographically particular – and yet it speaks to the universal: to time, to memory, to loss — and to love and to family. There is really nothing else like it."