Bernardo Atxaga's California Novel

Posted on May 27, 2010 by

By now readers of this blog should be pretty clear on two things: we're doing two events with Bernardo Atxaga early next month, and Atxaga is widely acclaimed as Basque's leading author.
Turns out the latter fact didn't stop him from starting and ending his latest novel, The Accordionist's Son, in California. Here's Michael Eaude reviewing it in The Independent:

The Accordionist's Son, first published in the Basque language in 2003, is his most accomplished novel (the wonderful Obabakoak is more a collection of linked stories). It is also his most ambitious, as it embraces the history of the Basque Country from 1936 to 1999.
The novel works on at least three levels: as an adventure; as a public story about the history and politics of the Basque Country; and a personal dissection of shifting mood and feeling, with Atxaga's customary precision. It opens with the death of the protagonist, David, on his ranch in California.

Eaude goes on to describe The Accordionist's Son as an ambitious, sweeping history of the emergence of ETA, the Basque armed guerrilla movement still active nearly 50 years after its foundation.
The Guardian also fleshes out this California theme:
On his horse ranch in California, David Imaz whiles away the time until his vital heart operation by looking back at his upbringing in the Basque country of the 1960s and 1970s. The bombing of Guernica and the Spanish Civil War reverberate through his memories as he tries to uncover whether the despotic father he detests has blood on his hands.

This is some bracing stuff, and I'll be interested to hear Atxaga talk more about it during our events on June 8 and 9. He'll also be talking about his fictional village of Obaba, as well as--poetry.