A “FINE, SHIMMERING, MERCURIAL NOVEL” FROM
BERNARDO ATXAGA, AUTHOR OF THE ACCORDIONIST’S SON
(The Observer, London)
Obabakoak is a quixotic, gem-like collection about life in Obaba, a remote, exotic Basque village. A schoolboy’s mining-engineer father tricks him into growing up, an unfortunate environmentalist rescues deceptively harmless lizards, and a rescue mission on a Swiss mountain-climbing expedition in Nepal turns into murder. Obaba is peopled with innocents and intellectuals, shepherds and schoolchildren, while everyone from a lovelorn schoolmistress to a cultured but self-hating dwarf wanders across the page.
A tinge of darkness mingles with moments of wry humor in this dazzling collage of fables, town gossip, diary excerpts, and literary theory, all held together by Bernardo Atxaga’s distinctive and tenderly ironic voice. An unforgettable work from an international literary giant, whom the
Observer (London) listed among the top twenty-one writers of the twenty-first century.
“Wonderfully peculiar.”
—CHARLES BAXTER
“Atxaga holds the attention by his sheer craft, by the complete control he exhibits.”
—THE INDEPENDENT
