Hugh is the younger son of the author Henry Roth. Popular recognition of his father's work did not soon follow from critical acclaim. "Call It Sleep," the classic portrayal of Jewish and American immigrant life in New York City, was out of print for almost thirty years - until rediscovered in the early 1960s. In 1946 the family moved from Boston to Maine, where they raised and slaughtered ducks and geese, and Hugh's mother was a teacher and principal in local schools. Hugh Roth left Maine to finish high school in Brighton, a suburb of Rochester, NY, to study cello at the Eastman School of Music. In the years after high school, until he settled in New York, he served in the Army in Southeast Asia and Germany and worked off and on for the Maine State Highway Commission. He got a BA in history from Empire State College in 2003. In 2006 he moved back to Maine, where he met Wanatha Garner, then living part-time on Vinalhaven, an island off the coast of Rockland. She finally made the move and continues coaxing along a small farm, where she runs sheep. Her skills in architecture, painting and weaving are everywhere evident. They were married in 2009.