The protaganist of Estimated Time of Arrest<\/em>, on the other hand, was never a member of ETA.\u00a0 Lartaun was involved in the kale barroka<\/em>, or the street fight, but was wrongfully accused of a bombing that killed a police officer.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n The Lone Man<\/em> opens slowly, and the entire novel is from Carlos’ perspective, delving deep into his thoughts and his psyche.\u00a0 He has done things in his past that he is not proud of and those things haunt him.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The ending is almost surreal, with it being very unclear what actually happens and what is just happening in Carlos’ mind.\u00a0 It makes for an odd, but very emotional, ending to the novel.<\/p>\n In some sense, then, these two novels are opposite sides of the same coin.\u00a0 The Lone Man<\/em> 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.\u00a0 Estimated Time of Arrest<\/em>, 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n It should be noted that neither novel tries to justify the violence that occurs and has occurred in Euskal Herria.\u00a0 Rather, they try to delve into why that violence occurs, what pushes people to that extreme, without condoning it.\u00a0 The terrorists are not portrayed sympathetically, but neither are they black and white evil characters.\u00a0 They are people who have found themselves in a position where they saw no other recourse.\u00a0 Again, the point isn’t to justify or condone, but to understand.<\/p>\n Both novels where highly enjoyable, though Estimated Time of Arrest<\/em>, being an action thriller, is a certainly lighter reading than The Lone Man<\/em>.\u00a0 The later novel is more a psychological thriller and as such gets a bit surreal at times.\u00a0 However, both are highly recommended.<\/p>\n Estimated Time of Arrest<\/em><\/a> and The Lone Man<\/em><\/a> can be purchased on Amazon.\u00a0 More information about Estimated Time of Arrest can be found on Miss Nyet Publishing’s website<\/a>.\u00a0 You can learn more about Bernardo Atxaga and his work at his official website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two men, both with connections to militants in their past.\u00a0 Both trying to start new lives.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 While The Lone Man is a psychologically […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21],"tags":[165,199,200,97,201],"class_list":["post-286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-bernardo-atxaga","tag-delphine-pontvieux","tag-estimated-time-of-arrest","tag-eta","tag-the-lone-man"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s2sYNu-286","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"atxaga-lone-man\"](\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/atxaga-lone-man.jpg\" "\\"atxaga-lone-man\\"")
<\/a>Carlos of The Lone Man<\/em> is an ex-member of ETA, having been sent to jail for his role in the death of an industrialist he had kidnapped.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He is drawn back into the militant world when he is asked to hide two fugitive members of ETA.<\/p>\n<\/a>Estimated Time of Arrest<\/em> is essentially the opposite.\u00a0 While Lartaun is the primary protaganist, the plot follows a number of characters that are involved.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Pontvieux uses every chance to explore the Basques and their homeland and present them to the reader.<\/p>\n