EBOOK
A Stranger at My Table
The postcolonial story of a family caught in the half-life of empires
Ivo Figueiredo3
(1)
About
From the acclaimed biographer of Norway's most treasured cultural icons, Henrik Ibsen and Edvard Munch, comes a story of a migrant family in search of roots and for each other.
Ivo de Figueiredo's lyrical and imagistic memoir navigates a difficult search for the origins of his estranged father, which opens a door to a family history spanning four continents, five centuries and the rise and fall of two empires. At the age of 45, Figueiredo traces his father's family in the diaspora. Having emigrated from the Portuguese colony of Goa on the west coast of India to British East Africa, and later to the West, his father's ancestors were Indians with European ways and values-trusted servants of the imperial powers. But in postcolonial times they became homeless, redundant, caught between the age of empires and the age of nations.
With lush descriptions and forthcoming honesty, A Stranger at My Table tells the story of a family unwittingly tied to two European empires, who paid the price for their downfall, weathering revolution and many forms of prejudice. The author's trove of often-strange photographs, letters and recordings as well as his eye for the smallest details and double-meanings lead the reader down a mysterious path as his search for his family's heritage results in a surprising reunification with his father and reconciliation with his past.
Ivo de Figueiredo's lyrical and imagistic memoir navigates a difficult search for the origins of his estranged father, which opens a door to a family history spanning four continents, five centuries and the rise and fall of two empires. At the age of 45, Figueiredo traces his father's family in the diaspora. Having emigrated from the Portuguese colony of Goa on the west coast of India to British East Africa, and later to the West, his father's ancestors were Indians with European ways and values-trusted servants of the imperial powers. But in postcolonial times they became homeless, redundant, caught between the age of empires and the age of nations.
With lush descriptions and forthcoming honesty, A Stranger at My Table tells the story of a family unwittingly tied to two European empires, who paid the price for their downfall, weathering revolution and many forms of prejudice. The author's trove of often-strange photographs, letters and recordings as well as his eye for the smallest details and double-meanings lead the reader down a mysterious path as his search for his family's heritage results in a surprising reunification with his father and reconciliation with his past.
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Reviews
"Figueiredo uses techniques that are reminiscent of W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz. […] In passages he dazzles his reader with a mixture of recollections, colonial history, literary references, passing portraits and scenic descriptions. He also includes Norwegian history, social mobility and immigration through the striking contrast between the exotic son-in-law and the mother's family of modest religio
Dagbladet
"It's impossible to do justice to the complexity of Figueiredo's writing in a review. His lyrical prose is exquisite. […] What commitment can we Goans make to his story? Can we claim Figueiredo for ourselves? He has no inkling of what it means to be Goan. His only, fleeting, acquaintance with the community has been the Norwegian Goan Association in Oslo, where desultory meetings conducted by disin
Selma Carvalho, O Heraldo and Joao-Roque
"Ivo de Figueiredo adds his own comment to the burning debate about so-called [Norwegian] reality literature. […] The result is an engaging and very well-written book […] A Stranger at My Table is a story that spans continents, multiple identities and different classes at one and the same time […] in the depiction of the fate of the Figueiredo family, where family became their true homeland as the
Sindre Hovden, VG+