OBABAKOAK: A Novel - Hardcover

Atxaga, Bernardo

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679424040 ISBN 13: 9780679424048

Publisher: Pantheon, 1993

Synopsis

A unique and stunning international literary event: winner of Spain's National Prize for Literature, Obabakoak, a work of fiction, is one of only several hundred books to be written in four centuries in Basque, a language understood by few (the author himself had to translate his book into Spanish to broaden its appeal throughout Europe, where it has been published to ecstatic acclaim).
Obabakoak means "the people and things of Obaba (a Basque village)," and the narrator weaves a tale reminiscent of Scheherazade's. The village is peopled with rascals, innocents, intellectuals, shepherds, hunters, idiots, and creatures of superstition, and the interconnection of their private worlds is brilliantly evoked. Parody, riddles, texts within texts abound in a book that is playful yet always tinged with melancholy.
Possessed of the timelessness of the fairy tale and informed by the lore of the oral tradition - and offering a good-humored spin through metaliterature and intertextuality - Obabakoak is a multi-faceted and rousing celebration of the art of storytelling.

About this title

About the Author:

Bernardo Atxaga was born in Gipuzkoa in Spain in 1951 and lives in the Basque Country, writing in Basque and Spanish. He is a prizewinning novelist and poet, whose books, including The Accordionist's Son and Seven Houses in France, have won critical acclaim in Spain and abroad. His works have been translated into twenty-two languages.

Language Notes:

Text: English (translation)

About this edition

• Publisher: Pantheon
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0679424040
• ISBN 13: 9780679424048
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 326