Spain
The Spanish session will take place on Monday, December 14th at 6:30pm at the Galeria Amster Yard of the Instituto Cervantes - 211 East 49th Street (between Second & Third Avenues) - Sold out
Second session: Tuesday, December 15th at 6:30pm at the Galeria Amster Yard of the Instituto Cervantes - 211 East 49th Street (between Second & Third Avenues)
To register for this session, send us an email at spain.nyc@europeanbookclub.orgThe Book:
The Lone Man original title in Basque : Gizona bere bakardadean. English version by Margaret Jull Costa, Harvill, 1996 has been translated into 15 languages and received several important prizes, such as the Spanish Critics' prize in 1993. The book was very well received abroad. British critics in particular took very enthusiastically to The Lone Man, and underlined that Atxaga's novel was not a conventional thriller, and that location and action were developed symbolically through a use of evocative imagery that enriched the plot. The critics remarked on the originality of the theme and the rhythm of the novel, and The Times said the novel was a captivating odyssey into the mind of the protagonist. In Spain the reviews were equally positive. The critic asserted that this was a novel by a great writer, a risky novel, full of detail and irony. The critics mentioned the sparseness of the prose, the seductiveness of the language, the subtleness of feeling. Basque critics, on the other hand, highlighted the novel's narrative pace and its ability to create suspenseful situations, the powerful dialogue and the plot structure, as well as the techniques borrowed from fantastic literature and the unreliable information the reader is presented with.
In this "literary thriller" Atxaga, explores the psychological and political landscape of Spain during the delicate and uneasy transition from dictatorship to democracy. During the Franco dictatorship in Spain (1939-75), the suppression of the Basque language and Basque laws and the lack of democratic alternatives gave rise to groups generally known as ETA -- or, in this book, "the organization." When Franco died, Spain gradually converted to a democracy. Basque political prisoners were amnestied, but old wounds did not heal quickly. Atxaga sets this novel among a group of Basque ex-prisoners, now operating a hotel in Barcelona, during the 1982 World Cup. This small group has renounced the armed struggle. But the cycle of conflict continues as the main character, Carlos, does one last job for the organization, hiding a man and a woman who are on the run from the authorities. Complicating matters, the hotel is crawling with police, ostensibly protecting the Polish soccer team staying at the hotel.
Atxaga works from inside the head of Carlos, increasing the tension page-by-page as the police get closer and closer to the truth. He explores Carlos's relationships with his fellow ex-prisoners, Guiomar and Ugarte, as the plot moves forward. There are also the families, girlfriends, staff, the Polish team and various hangers-on. The police are on to Carlos, he knows they know, but there is no proof. Who was the informer? Will Carlos get "Jon" and "Jone" out of the hotel bakery where they are hiding, without being caught?
A lot of other questions remain unanswered. Why can't Carlos return to the Basque lands? Why did he have to commit his brother, Kropotky, to a mental institution? Will his former comrades -- now business partners -- denounce him?
About the author:
Bernado Atxaga is the basque’s strongest literary voice. He has collected more prizes than any other Basque author to date: Premio Nacional de Narrativa, 1989, the Milepages in 1991, the Tres Coronas de los Pirineos Atlánticos in 1995, the Vasco Universal in 2002, the Cesare Pavese Poetry prize in 2003, the Mondello Prize, whose previous winners include Joseph Brodsky, Doris Lessing, Günter Grass, Octavio Paz, and José Saramago and he sells more books than anyone else writing in Basque. In other words, he is an eminently exportable author. Atxaga’s novels, stories, and poems have been translated into more than seventy languages. The Accordionist´s Son, his latest novel, has been published in the USA in 2008.