Disguise (2008) Gregor Liedmann dies at the age of three in the bombing of Berlin during World War II. As his grieving mother flees south, her father Emil picks up a refugee orphan to replace her missing son. Only much later does Gregor discover that he is, in fact, a Jewish survivor. But there is no proof, and Gregor spends a lifetime in the borderlands between real and imagined origins, running away from his family, unable to keep his own marriage, travelling around the world as a musician and ending up in Ireland, only to return to Berlin after the fall of the Wall. On a single day spent gathering fruit in an orchard outside Berlin with family and friends, Gregor looks back over his life, sifting through fact and memory in order to establish the truth. What happened on that journey south in the final days of the war? Why did his grandfather Emil disappear and why did the Gestapo torture uncle Max? Here in the calmness of the orchard, Gregor's former wife Mara and his son Daniel finally bring out the evidence. In his first novel since the best-selling memoir 'The Speckled People', Hugo Hamilton has created a truly compelling story of lost identity, a remarkable reflection on the ambiguity of home and belonging.

"A rare book. Almost unbearably moving, wonderfully understated, damn near perfect"
Rachel Seiffert (author of Afterwards), Financial Times

"Stirringly honest and engaging."
Scotsman

"[A] novelist of great delicacy, originality and thoughtfulness, oddly consoling."
Hermione Lee, Guardian

"As in his memoirs The Speckled People and The Harbor Boys, Hamilton's dominant theme in this absorbing and introspective novel is identity....Hamilton writes vividly about the frustration of a boy living with adults damaged by war... the questions he raises are fascinating."
Publishers Weekly