The Accordionist's Son - Hardcover

Atxaga, Bernardo

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1843432803 ISBN 13: 9781843432807

Publisher: Harvill Secker, 2008

Synopsis

Taking us from 1936 to 1999, The Accordionist’s Son, heralded by the Times Literary Supplement as “the first great Basque novel,” is a beautiful and gripping tale of a town, a family, an incredible friendship and a people whose culture is slowly dying.

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 prize-winning novelist and poet, whose books Obabakoak, The Lone Man and The Lone Woman have won critical acclaim in Spain and abroad. His works have been translated in twenty-two languages.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Axtaga returns to Obaba, the fictional village at the heart of his acclaimed novel Obabakoak, to tell a gorgeous and ambitious story about the Basque land and language. Much of the book is set in the 1960s, when David Imaz, the teenage son of an accordionist, begins to suspect his father participated in the execution of villagers accused of being Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. Twenty-five years after the war officially ended, political—even inadvertently political—choices remain deadly, but fear of Franco's civil guard neither darkens the innocence or exuberance of the young nor lightens the guilt of their parents. In Obaba, grudges and friendships are long-lasting and deep, and secrets are buried only shallowly. The narrative moves back and forth through time, from the 1990s, when gravely ill David reflects on his life from a ranch in California, to the war in the 1930s and through David's sometimes dangerous coming-of-age up through the 1970s. Originally written in Basque (and later translated into Spanish), the novel is a worthy addition to both Axtaga's body of work and the Basque canon. (Feb.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Harvill Secker
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1843432803
• ISBN 13: 9781843432807
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384