Matt Haig

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Matt Haig (2016)

Matt Haig (* 3. July 1975 in Sheffield , South Yorkshire , England ) is a British bestseller - novelist and journalist . Known for both fictional and non-fiction, he writes books for all ages, especially often in the speculative fiction genre . Many of his books revolve around the essence of people and families. Haig is married with two children and the family lives in Brighton .

life and career

Haig was born in Sheffield in 1975. He studied English and history at the University of Hull .

Haig is the author of novels and non-fiction books for children, adolescents and adults. He often sticks to the genre of the fantastic (or speculative fiction). His latest non-fiction book, Reasons to Stay Alive , reached number one on the Sunday Times bestseller list and stayed in the UK's top 10 bestsellers for 46 weeks. The memoirs about his ongoing struggle with his major depressive disorder , first diagnosed in 1999 , the almost attacked suicide and his way back to life were praised by critics, patients and experts alike, the audio book was the first to speak to Haig himself. His similarly successful children's book A Boy Called Christmas (2015) is being adapted as a film by Studiocanal and Blueprint Pictures; Danny Perkins is acting as producer, the adapted script is by Ol Parker. A German translation by Sophie Zeitz was published in 2016 under the title A boy named Christmas . Also in 2016, Haig published a sequel to the story under the title The Girl Who Saved Christmas (German title: The girl who saved Christmas ). A third part followed in 2017 with Father Christmas and Me . Chris Hould illustrated the children's books.

His novels are often dark and subtle interpretations of family life. The Last Family in England (2004, alternative title of the US edition: The Labrador Pact ) is a retelling of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 , the main characters are dogs. In 2006 Tatjana Kruse published it in German translation as Forever, Your Prince . His second novel, Dead Fathers Club (2006), based on Hamlet , tells the story of an introverted 11-year-old trying to cope with the sudden death of his father and the appearance of his ghost. This book, too, was translated into German by Tatjana Kruse two years after it was first published under the title Message from Dad . His third adult novel, The Possession of Mr Cave , deals with a compulsive father desperately trying to protect his teenage daughter. It is Haig's only novel so far that is not assigned to the genre of speculative fiction. Haig's children's book Shadow Forest (2007, US alternative title: Samuel Blink and the Forbidden Forest ) is a fantasy novel that begins with the terrible death of the parents of the protagonist Samuel Blink and tells of how it was dealt with. It won the Nestlé Children's Book Prize 2007. The title of the German translation is Im Schattenwald , and it was translated by Knut Krüger ( Just save the mammoth quickly ). In 2008 the following story followed Runaway Troll (alternatively Samuel Blink and the Runaway Troll ). Haig's vampire story The Radleys (German title Die Radleys , translation by Friederike Levin) was published in 2011. The short story The Ghost Walk was also published in 2011, followed by the novel To Be a Cat a year later . Both are not yet available in German translation.

In 2013 he published his internationally most successful novel The Humans . The novel tells of an extraterrestrial who takes the form of a genius math professor who was previously killed by his clients in order to destroy traces of his work and kill all those who knew it. This is to save the future of the universe and its own species, because the Cambridge professor had just successfully proven the Riemann Hypothesis - perhaps the greatest mathematical problem of today (on earth) and one of the so-called Millennium problems . This evidence would inevitably result in a huge leap in the technological development of mankind, for which human beings are not prepared and with which they cannot adequately deal. While the alien first removes all technical traces of dangerous progress and then turns to the people involved, he develops unexpected feelings for the professor's wife and young son and also makes a number of fascinating observations about this "species of mediocre intelligence" from a particularly lonely corner of the universe. He cannot finish the job and decides to give up the privileges of his highly developed and immortal people for a human existence on earth. The novel was nominated for the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire in its French translation by Valérie Le Plouhinec ( Humains ) . The Hamburger Morgenpost called the novel “funny, philosophical and romantic”, the Sunday Times wrote “Haig's highly original novel of love, longing and peanut butter is funny, clever and very, very amiable.” The Daily Mail called it a “novel with one very big heart. "Sophie Zeitz translated it under the title I and the people in the German nor in 2013 produced the Hörverlag one of Christoph Maria Herbst eingesprochenes audiobook .

The success of the novel prompted Haig to publish a corresponding “guide” in the following year: In The People from A to Z , the extraterrestrial main character tries to explain many terms of human civilization according to their understanding in alphabetical order and otherwise in the style of a dictionary ( from being alone to monogamy and stir-frying to home ). According to the blurb, it is aimed at "newbies on earth and everyone who gets tangled up in human affairs" and "contains, alphabetically sorted, all sorts of useful information about the human species."

Echo Boy was released in 2014 . The German translation of the same name is by Violeta Topalova and came onto the market in 2016. In 2017, Haig published the novel How to Stop Time , a story about an apparently 40-year-old man who has actually lived on earth for over 400 years and during this time met people like William Shakespeare , Captain Cook and F. Scott Fitzgerald . In an interview with the Guardian , Haig announced that Studiocanal had secured the film rights to the book and that Benedict Cumberbatch was being considered to cast the main character.

He has two children with his wife Andrea Semple. The family lives in Brighton in the south of England. He teaches his children at home and is an atheist . At the age of 24, he was diagnosed with clinical depression (MDD). He ascribes an effect similar to that of pharmaceutical antidepressants to books, especially poetry, and describes them as his “lifesavers”. He describes his experiences in the repeated struggle with depression and his way back to life in his non-fiction book Reasons to Stay Alive (2015). The memoir earned him the Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards in 2016 . How to Stop Time was nominated for the same award in 2017.

Works

The publisher of the first publication is shown in brackets.

Novels

  • 2004: The Last Family in England (Jonathan Cape); Alternative title (USA): The Labrador Pact
  • 2006: The Dead Fathers Club (Jonathan Cape)
    • Message from Dad , Ü: Tatjana Kruse (Goldmann Verlag 2008)
  • 2007: Shadow Forest (Jonathan Cape); Alternative title (USA): Samuel Blink and the Forbidden Forest
    • Im Schattenwald , Ü: Knut Krüger ( cbj 2007)
  • 2008: The Possession of Mr Cave (The Bodley Head)
  • 2008: Runaway Troll (Jonathan Cape); Alternative title (USA): Samuel Blink and the Runaway Troll
  • 2010: The Radleys (The Bodley Head)
  • 2013: To Be A Cat (Atheneum)
  • 2013: The Humans (Canongate Books)
    • Me and the people , t: Sophie Zeitz ( dtv 2014)
  • 2014: The Humans: An A – Z (Canongate Books)
    • People from A to Z , Ü: Sophie Zeitz (dtv 2015)
  • 2014: Echo Boy (The Bodley Head)
    • Echo Boy , Ü: Violeta Topalova (dtv 2016)
  • 2015: A Boy Called Christmas (Canongate Books)
    • A boy called Christmas , t: Sophie Zeitz (dtv 2016)
  • 2016: The Girl Who Saved Christmas (Canongate Books)
    • The girl who saved Christmas , t: Sophie Zeitz-Ventura (dtv 2017)
  • 2017: How to Stop Time (Canongate Books)
    • How to stop time , T: Sophie Zeitz (dtv 2018)
  • 2017: Father Christmas and Me (Canongate Books)
    • Me and Santa Claus , t: Sophie Zeitz (dtv 2018)

Non-fiction

  • 2002: How Come You Don't Have An E-Strategy (Kogan Page)
  • 2003: Brand Failures (Kogan Page)
  • 2004: Brand Royalty (Kogan Page)
  • 2011: Brand Success (Kogan Page)
  • 2015: Reasons to Stay Alive (Canongate Books)
    • Pretty good reasons to stay alive , tr: Sophie Zeitz-Ventura (2016)
  • 2018: Notes on a Nervous Planet (Canongate Books)
    • Take it easy. Notes on our nervous planet , T: Sophie Zeitz (2019)

Audio book editions

Awards

Web links

  • Homepage of Matt Haig
  • Matt Haig in the ISFDb . In addition to some biographical data, there is also background information on almost all of the author's fictitious publications and their translations.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Matt Haig (@ matthaig1): IT'S MY BIRTHDAY !! I AM TYPING THIS ON A NEW COMPUTER! I HAVE BOOKS AND SOCKS AND WORLD PEACE. ICH LIEBE DICH. BYE. X . Twitter . July 3, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  2. ↑ Matt Haig interview: The writer hopes his new book will help him banish the ghosts of Christmas past . In: The Independent , November 29, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2016. 
  3. ↑ a b Matt Haig: “We live in a world designed to make us feel we're constantly missing out” . In: Cambridge News , April 2, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2016. 
  4. ^ Matt Haig in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database . Retrieved December 23, 2017
  5. ↑ A Boy Called Christmas British Council online movie info . The film is still in pre-production after this . Retrieved December 23, 2017.
  6. ^ A b Nestlé Children's Book Prize 2007 . Retrieved October 2, 2016.
  7. ↑ Shrigley, Matt Haig to Canongate . Archived from the original on April 20, 2010. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
  8. ↑ a b List of awards on the ISFDb website . Retrieved December 23, 2017.
  9. ↑ Guest, Katy: Matt Haig: 'I think books can save us. They sort of saved me ' . The Guardian . June 30, 2017. Retrieved July 1, 2017.
  10. ↑ a b Matt Haig interview: The author on books as antidepressants, finding religion in Shakespeare and why country music is good for the soul . In: The Independent , March 22, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2016. 
  11. ^ School's out . In: The Sunday Times , November 29, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2016. 
  12. ↑ a b c Books Are My Bag ( en-US ) Retrieved November 6, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Haig, Matt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd July 1975
PLACE OF BIRTH Sheffield , South Yorkshire , England