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.
Imprint: Vintage Digital
Published: 25/01/2011
ISBN: 9781446444207
Length: 336 Pages
RRP: £12.99
A fine, shimmering, mercurial novel
A brilliantly inventive writer...He understands the nature of story telling and is at once terribly moving and wildly funny
An impressive intellectual achievement
Atxaga holds the attention by his sheer craft, by the complete control he exhibits
This English version beautifully retains Mr. Atxaga's magically flowing and seemingly simple style... an achievement not made easy by his considerable technical and linguistic virtuosity and his love of inventing ways to make language itself speak with new voices