Obabakoak

by Bernardo Atxaga

Overview

One of only a hundred or so books originally written in the Basque language during the last four centuries, Obabakoak is a shimmering, mercurial novel about life in Obaba, a remote, exotic, Basque village.

Obaba is peopled with innocents and intellectuals, shepherds and schoolchildren, whilst everyone from a lovelorn schoolmistress to a cultured but self-hating dwarf wanders across the page.

Obabakoak is a dazzling collage of stories, town gossip, diary excerpts and literary theory, all held together by Atxaga's distinctive and tenderly ironic voice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781446444207
Publisher:	Random House
Publication date:	01/25/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	368 KB

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.

What People are Saying About This

A. S. Byatt

"Atxaga is a brilliantly inventive writer...Obabakoak is at once terribly moving and wildly funny."

EBOOK COMMENTARY

"Atxaga is a brilliantly inventive writer...Obabakoak is at once terribly moving and wildly funny."

Editorial Reviews

This loosely structured novel centered on a remote Basque village portrays life as a perilous journey in which chance and free will intervene in equal measures. An unobtrusively dazzling collage of seemingly unrelated stories, town gossip, diary excerpts and literary theory, all held together by Atxaga's distinctive, tenderly ironic voice, it won Spain's National Prize for Literature. The Basque novelist and poet peoples the town of Obaba and its environs with a lovelorn schoolmistress, a cultured but self-hating dwarf, a schoolboy whose mining engineer father tricks him into growing up and an environmentalist who rescues lizards after playing wicked tricks with them as a youth. Atxaga also spins tales of a German painter driven mad by guilt over his romance with an Arab woman; of an Irish woman in search of her doctor husband who is missing in the Amazon jungle; and of a rescue mission on a Swiss mountain climbing expedition in Nepal that turns to murder. (Apr.)

EBOOK COMMENTARY

This loosely structured novel centered on a remote Basque village portrays life as a perilous journey in which chance and free will intervene in equal measures. An unobtrusively dazzling collage of seemingly unrelated stories, town gossip, diary excerpts and literary theory, all held together by Atxaga's distinctive, tenderly ironic voice, it won Spain's National Prize for Literature. The Basque novelist and poet peoples the town of Obaba and its environs with a lovelorn schoolmistress, a cultured but self-hating dwarf, a schoolboy whose mining engineer father tricks him into growing up and an environmentalist who rescues lizards after playing wicked tricks with them as a youth. Atxaga also spins tales of a German painter driven mad by guilt over his romance with an Arab woman; of an Irish woman in search of her doctor husband who is missing in the Amazon jungle; and of a rescue mission on a Swiss mountain climbing expedition in Nepal that turns to murder. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In the prolog to this novel, Atxaga explains the intricacies of his native culture: ``I write in a strange language. Its verbs, the structure of its relative clauses, have no sisters anywhere on Earth.'' Translated into English from the author's own Spanish translation of the original text written in Basque, the work has everything to do with the language of a people and culture living on the fringes of society. Like the single-laned, rutted, dirt roads that link the sparsely populated villages in the fictitious region of Obaba, Atxaga (a la Gabriel Garcia Marquez) has compiled a series of independent and interrelated stories that introduce the reader to a cross-section of Obaban society. Through the eyes of these numerous protagonists, who can vary from chapter to chapter, Atxaga reviews and foreshadows the paralyzing effect superstition and myth-making can have on the individual and society. He both respects and fears the inherent introversion of his people--so ably reflected in a language spoken by only a handful of human beings. Obabakoak , winner of Spain's National Prize for Literature, is a tribute to the Basque people's language and culture.-- David H. Miller, New York

Library Journal

Reseñas:

«El centro de lo más novedoso y excitante que ofrece la literatura europea de nuestros días. Hay humor, ironía, magia, misterio y un lenguaje poético magistral. Leerlo es un placer.»Publishing News
«Su enorme variedad y su mezcla única de posibilidades genéricas lo apartan de casi todo dentro de la narrativa. Sus páginas recrean un mundo nuevo y fresco con una originalidad poco común en la literatura española contemporánea.».- The New York Times

«Los relatos engastados por el narrador son por sí solos pequeñas obras maestras. Hay humor y una ironía más mordaz que hiriente; un libro entretenido que nunca llega a ser superficial.».- The Times Literary Supplement

«Las cuestiones que plantea son universales, y el tiempo es indefinido. Las historias son sorprendentemente frescas y se combinan de maravilla. Atxaga mantiene la atención con su fina destreza, con el total control que muestra mientras nos guía a través de este juego de la oca.».- The Independent

«Obababoak es un libro tan sorprendente y familiar como esas galerías de espejos de las ferias que proyectan hasta el infinito nuestro rostro divertido, sorprendido, asustado.».- Télérama

«Su narrativa conserva en todo momento la capacidad de sorprender y encantar.».- Il Manifesto

From the Publisher