On the way to work this morning, I heard a story on NPR about a woman of Puerto Rican heritage from north Philly that wrote an ABC book from her neighborhood’s perspective.  It got me thinking what would an ABC book from a Basque-American perspective look like?  Some of my thoughts are below, any others?

A is for Aitxitxa and Amuma, who left the Old Country to find a better life.

B is for Basajaun, lord of the forest, and the first blacksmith.

C is for Chorizo, the Basque hotdog!

Regular readers of Buber’s Basque Page are probably familiar with Guillermo Zubiaga.  Originally from Bilbao, Guillermo now resides in New York.  A graphic artist, he has worked for some of the big comic book companies, including Marvel and Dark Horse.  Recently, Guillermo combined two of his passions — the visual arts and Basque history — into a vivid tale of the daring exploits of Basque mariners on the high seas as they search for the prized catch of the day, whales.

Joanes or the Basque Whaler is inspired by the oldest known texts to be produced in North America, the last will and testament of Joanes de Echaniz, a Basque whaler.  The story follows a fictionalized Joanes as he tries to make his fortune as a whaler in an era when the whales in the Bay of Biscay were scarce.  Joanes is forced to look farther afield, but he doesn’t have the resources to do so.  This is when Guillermo begins to depart from historical fact and weave in elements of Basque mythology.  Joanes consults a witch, who summons a devil from the sea who assists Joanes, but for a price.  The first book ends with the threat of that price tempering the success Joanes and his crew have just had in their first hunt.

The story is told mostly via the visuals, with just enough text to push the story along.  And this both suits the story as well as highlights Guillermo’s talents as an artist.  The detail he brings to the art is wonderful, especially the various types of ships, the animals, and the cities.  He misses no chance to fold in Basque symbolism. His mariners are covered in tattoos of Basque symbols.  His witches wear traditional Basque dress.  Joanes’ boat is also covered in lauburus and rosettas.  But where Guillermo’s art shines, in my opinion, is in the faces of his characters.  They are all distinct and their facial expressions convey the action of the story as strongly as does the text.

Joanes or the Basque Whaler is a fantastic blend of history and mythology that leads to an amazing adventure in what Guillermo refers to as the Wild West era of Basque history, of daring men, amazing exploits, and a vast wilderness.  This is only the first book of a series, and I’m very interested to see where Joanes’ adventures lead him.

Holly Emblem is the editor of CasinoOnline.co.uk. They recently published an interview with Steven Skiena, author of Calculated Bets. Skiena, a Professor of Computer Science at the State University of New York, is also a fan of jai alai, a passion he picked up during a family vacation to Florida when he was a kid.  As noted in the interview, “From early teenage invention Clyde, to the jai alai betting machine that is Maven, Skiena book charts an arduous journey of applying mathematics to gambling.”

I haven’t read the book, but it certainly seems interesting.  Skiena focuses on gambling as it relates to sports and says “if you don’t understand the mathematics, you shouldn’t gamble,” which makes a great deal of sense.  His passion for jai alai certainly intrigues me.  I’ll be looking for his book.

Eskerrik asko, Holly!

Richard Marsh’s imprint, Legendary Books, has just released it’s newest title, Spanish and Basque Legends.  Focused mostly on Spanish legends, including El Cid, Fernán González, and The Seven Princes of Lara, it also includes a number of Basque tales. All told, 76 stories are featured, including The Jaun Zuria Cycle:

• Jaun Zuria – The Golden-haired Lord
• The Death of Lekobide
• The Death of Munso López
• The Goat-foot Lady

For more information, including how to purchase the book, check out Richard’s website.

Delphine Pontvieux, author of ETA – Estimated Time of Arrest, has a special offer for readers of Buber’s Basque Page:

During the month of April, when you buy ETA – Estimated Time of Arrest on www.missnyet.com, you will receive a special “Estimated Time of Arrest” bookmark for free, as well as a signed copy of the book by the author!

Offer valid until April 30th, 2010 only on purchases made via www.missnyet.com.

In Delphine Pontvieux’s new novel ETA- Estimated Time of Arrest, her main character, Lartaun, is forced to flee his native Basque Country when he is accused of a crime he didn’t commit. Living under an assumed name in Mexico, he is given a chance to return by his childhood friend Patxi, but with a price.

Estimated Time of Arrest is a fast-paced action thriller, combining politics, romance, and the best of police dramas into one superb tale. In this interview, Delphine describes her motivations, her interactions with reknowned musician Fermin Muguruza, and her experiences in writing and self-publishing her first novel.

Two men, both with connections to militants in their past.  Both trying to start new lives.  Both pulled back into their past, altering their futures forever.

That is about where the similarities between Delphine Pontvieux’s ETA — Estimated Time of Arrest and Bernardo Atxaga’s The Lone Man end.  While The Lone Man is a psychologically thriller, ETA is an action-packed adventure ride.  Both take you on a roller coaster of suspense and end up leaving you satisfied and hungry for more.

Carlos of The Lone Man is an ex-member of ETA, having been sent to jail for his role in the death of an industrialist he had kidnapped.  After the death of Franco, he had been given amnesty and, along with other ex-militants, created a new life near Barcelona where they own a hotel.  He is drawn back into the militant world when he is asked to hide two fugitive members of ETA.

The protaganist of Estimated Time of Arrest, on the other hand, was never a member of ETA.  Lartaun was involved in the kale barroka, or the street fight, but was wrongfully accused of a bombing that killed a police officer.  He fled to Mexico where he was in exile for two years, before being offered a chance to return to Europe with a new identity, in exchange for a favor for his boyhood friend, Patxi, who is deeply involved in ETA.  That favor, however, proves to be more than he can handle, especially when he falls for Faustine, a woman who lives in the commune where he takes cover.

The Lone Man opens slowly, and the entire novel is from Carlos’ perspective, delving deep into his thoughts and his psyche.  He has done things in his past that he is not proud of and those things haunt him.  At the same time, he is somewhat paranoid, given the circumstances of his hiding the two ETA members, though, it turns out, with good reason.  He tries to find a way to extracate himself from the situation before everything he and his friends have worked for in building their new life.  The ending is almost surreal, with it being very unclear what actually happens and what is just happening in Carlos’ mind.  It makes for an odd, but very emotional, ending to the novel.

Estimated Time of Arrest is essentially the opposite.  While Lartaun is the primary protaganist, the plot follows a number of characters that are involved.  It is high-octane action, pitting Lartaun and his girlfriend Faustine against the police against Patxi and his crew as they all race against all odds to the final confrontation with Patxi and his plans for a big event to shake Spanish politics.  While the motivations of the characters are explored to some extent, the real drivers here are the plot and the setting — the fact that this takes place in and near Euskadi is always central to the novel.  Pontvieux uses every chance to explore the Basques and their homeland and present them to the reader.

In some sense, then, these two novels are opposite sides of the same coin.  The Lone Man really focuses on the man, the ex-ETA member, what goes on his head and how he tries to live with the things he has done.  Estimated Time of Arrest, on the other hand, delves into the actions of militants like Carlos used to be and how someone like Lartaun can get caught up into things beyond his control and, to some sense, against his wishes.  In that sense, they are a nice compliment to one another and, taken together, they present an interesting perspective of the militant struggles occurring in the Basque Country.

It should be noted that neither novel tries to justify the violence that occurs and has occurred in Euskal Herria.  Rather, they try to delve into why that violence occurs, what pushes people to that extreme, without condoning it.  The terrorists are not portrayed sympathetically, but neither are they black and white evil characters.  They are people who have found themselves in a position where they saw no other recourse.  Again, the point isn’t to justify or condone, but to understand.

Both novels where highly enjoyable, though Estimated Time of Arrest, being an action thriller, is a certainly lighter reading than The Lone Man.  The later novel is more a psychological thriller and as such gets a bit surreal at times.  However, both are highly recommended.

Estimated Time of Arrest and The Lone Man can be purchased on Amazon.  More information about Estimated Time of Arrest can be found on Miss Nyet Publishing’s website.  You can learn more about Bernardo Atxaga and his work at his official website.

Obabakoak by Bernardo Atxaga is one of my favorite books.  Certainly I have a little bias because it is by a Basque author, but it is simply a marvelous book, regardless of any personally leanings.  I read it for the second time this summer as part of the New Mexico Euskal Etxea’s book club and rediscovered all of the charm and wonder that I first encountered over a decade ago when I first read it.

Using the fictitious Basque town of Obaba as a framing device, Atxaga tells a series of tales that are essentially independent short stories, but all with some connection to Obaba.  Some take place in Obaba itself, others focus on people originally from Obaba.  The town of Obaba serves to bring some cohesiveness to the collection.

I had forgotten some of the stories that really are great.  Whether dealing with one man’s exploration of an old forgotten Spanish town, or the dreams of a man trying to escape his life through an elaborate crime, or even just the story of a man revisiting the mysterious circumstances surrounding the disability of an old grade-school friend, each story has a different style and different approach that individually explore the human condition in such a wonderful way, but collectively demonstrate the great skills of their author.

While the English version is a result of both Atxaga’s skill as a writer in Euskara as well as the translator’s ability to reword that Euskara into English, such that the line between author and text is a little blurred, the way words are used is just delightful.  Take, for instance, this description from the chapter entitled “Nine Words in Honour of the Village of Villamediana”:

Imagine, for example, that you have a cockroach living in your house and one day it occurs to you to christen that cockroach Jose Maria, and then it’s Jose Maria this or Jose Maria that, and very soon the creature becomes a sort of small, black person, who may turn out to be timid or irritable or even a little conceited.  And obviously in that situation you wouldn’t dream of putting poison down around the house.  Well, you might consider it as an option but no more often than you would for any other friend.

That last line just completely changes the entire feeling of the paragraph.  Or this one, from the same chapter:

What else was solitude if not a situation in which even the ticking of a clock can be companionable?

Overall, the stories, it seems to me, belong to that class of fiction that Borges contributed so much to, magic realism.  These stories surprise the reader with their plot, but also explore those corners of the human experience, both the dark and light corners, that make life so rich, that make being human so, well, human.  His characters all have their shortcomings, all have their foibles, and are the richer for it.  There are no happy endings.  There are endings that are happy, but just because that happens in real life at times.  Just like real life, there are sad endings, and tragic endings, and Atxaga has all of those.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is simply interested in a collection of great stories.

Delphine Pontvieux, a member of the forum, has just released her novel ETA: Estimated Time of Arrest…

After participating in a pro-separatist march that turned violent in January of 1992, 21-year-old Lorenzo Lartaun Izcoa is wrongly charged with the fatal bombing of a police station in his home town. Irun is a small city located in the heart of the Basque country, trapped between France and Spain, and struggling for independence. Lartaun finds himself on the Spanish Secret Service’s “most wanted” list, branded an active member of the Basque terrorist group ETA.

He has no choice but to flee his country.

Two years later, Lartaun’s childhood friend bursts back into his life. In exchange for a “small favor,” he offers him a passport and the chance to return to Europe under a new identity. Lartaun seizes the opportunity.

…WRONG TIME

Back in Europe, hiding away in a commune in the French Pyrenees Mountains, Lartaun meets Faustine, a young French environmentalist. As their relationship renews his belief in a future worth fighting for, Lartaun realizes, albeit too late, that the favor he owes his friend is not so “small” after all.

FREEDOM COMES AT A STEEP PRICE
HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO PROTECT YOURS?

Interior art is by Guillermo Zubiaga, who was interviewed on this site back in 2007.

More information can be found on Delphine’s site www.missnyet.com.

A historian’s greatest challenge is to convey the excitement and drama of history.  This is especially true for more obscure subjects, as the reader doesn’t already come with some emotional attachment.  But this is exactly where Christine Bender excels.  By using fiction as her vehicle to explore historical events, Christine is able to delve into the hearts and minds of her subjects, imagining how they thought and felt during some of history’s most exciting and crucial times.  Using her own Basque heritage as inspiration, she focuses on the adventures of Basques during the Age of Discovery, when the world was being explored to extents previously unheard of.  Her most recent book, The Whaler’s Forge, examines that time when Basques first found the North American coast in their search for new hunting grounds.

In this interview, Christine describes how she chooses her subjects and how she puts herself into their shoes to explore both their character and the world around them, and she even gives us a glimpse of the subject of her next novel.

Eskerrik asko, Christine!