SEABANK
INTRODUCING
ROBERT HENNEGAN
About Us
SEABANK
is an exciting new publisher based on the bracing west coast of Scotland with terrific new fiction writers.
First up is new novelist
Robert Hennegan
with the intriguing
Crossed Lives.
First up is new novelist
Robert Hennegan
with the intriguing
Crossed Lives.
Crossed Lives by Robert Hennegan
It is 1989: a year of momentous change.
In the still unforeseen months of the Cold War, Hazel, a young anthropologist, travels as a tourist with a motley cast of characters to an isolated Balkan society still ruled by a harsh communist regime.
To a background of breathtakingly beautiful landscapes and unlikely encounters, Hazel becomes beguiled by the lugubrious and enigmatic local tour guide, Arben.
But the tour is dramatically curtailed before Hazel can act on her growing obsession.
As the end of communism brings violent upheaval to Arben's country, Hazel seeks a legitimate reason to return. When she does, Hazel's apparent exploitation of Arben, as both an emotional and anthropological object, begins to rebound on her.
And as Hazel delves further into Arben's background, a violent past begins to catch up with the present, with devastating consequences.
Suffused with irony and allusion, this is a novel about unequal relationships, unintended consequences, and the assumptions we make about ourselves and others.
Not least, it is a fiction about the dynamic quality of being 'European'
Not least, it is a fiction about the dynamic quality of being 'European'
Some children even wave at the bus, although most people just stop and stare. A group of youths shout, a young girl waves an orange, and a man in bulging swimming trunks with a squashed face flexes his muscles and grins enormous teeth.
As Arben is pointing out that this is the country’s main beach resort the bus stops with a jolt. He looks round in surprise; heads go up to see what is wrong.
Traffic lights. They have encountered one of the country’s few sets of traffic lights. When Jojo pulls away again a policewoman can be seen standing within a white circle in the middle of the junction conducting traffic.
The traffic lights are evidently not working.
Keith glimpses a young boy in callipers, reminding him of schooldays and the polio victims of his youth.
Sandra points her camera through the window at a young girl leading two sheep and a goose, and then at men crouched down, huddling together on shady corners around bicycle repair huts.
Just as the straggle of town is accruing interest, blocks of stark apartments rear up to darken the bus interior.
Extract from Crossed Lives
copyright Robert Hennegan
Author photograph by Janet Harris
As Arben is pointing out that this is the country’s main beach resort the bus stops with a jolt. He looks round in surprise; heads go up to see what is wrong.
Traffic lights. They have encountered one of the country’s few sets of traffic lights. When Jojo pulls away again a policewoman can be seen standing within a white circle in the middle of the junction conducting traffic.
The traffic lights are evidently not working.
Keith glimpses a young boy in callipers, reminding him of schooldays and the polio victims of his youth.
Sandra points her camera through the window at a young girl leading two sheep and a goose, and then at men crouched down, huddling together on shady corners around bicycle repair huts.
Just as the straggle of town is accruing interest, blocks of stark apartments rear up to darken the bus interior.
Extract from Crossed Lives copyright Robert Hennegan
Author photograph by Janet Harris
