Keynote
A perceptive, moving novel about life and death in the Basque Country, from the author of Nevada Days
Book Title
Water over Stones
Subtitle
A Novel
Cover Image
- “[Atxaga's] voice, fluidly translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Thomas Bunstead, runs like a river, meandering across lives. . . . The result is a portrait of an entire Basque universe, in flux yet eternal.”—Andy Tepper, The New York Times Book Review
Body
Bernardo Atxaga’s Water over Stones follows a group of interconnected people in a small village in the Basque Country. It opens with the story of a young boy who has returned from his French boarding school to his uncle’s bakery, where his family hopes he will speak again. He’s been silent since an incident in which he threw a stone at a teacher for reasons unknown. With the assistance of twin brothers who take him to a river in the forest, he’ll recover his speech. As the years pass, those twins, now adults, will be part of a mining strike in the Ugarte region, and so take up the mantle of the narrative, just as others will after them.
Water over Stones is similar in nature to Atxaga’s earlier books Obabakoak and The Accordionist’s Son, as it weaves in themes of friendship, nature, and death. Yet in capturing a span of time from the early 1970s, when the shadow of the Franco dictatorship still loomed, to 2017, when these boys must learn to leave their old beliefs behind and move on, Atxaga finds new richness and depth in familiar subjects. As threads of water run over stones in the river, so these lives run together and, over time, technology and industry bring new changes as the wheel of life turns.
Water over Stones is similar in nature to Atxaga’s earlier books Obabakoak and The Accordionist’s Son, as it weaves in themes of friendship, nature, and death. Yet in capturing a span of time from the early 1970s, when the shadow of the Franco dictatorship still loomed, to 2017, when these boys must learn to leave their old beliefs behind and move on, Atxaga finds new richness and depth in familiar subjects. As threads of water run over stones in the river, so these lives run together and, over time, technology and industry bring new changes as the wheel of life turns.
List Price
$18.00
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About the Author
Credit: Ernesto Valverde
Praise
- “Atxaga offers a remarkable and sprawling story of a friendship over five decades in the Basque country. . . . As the years go on, an intricate study emerges of what it means for the characters to rely on each other as they grow older. It’s a twisting and rewarding story, and one readers will savor until the lovely finish.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
- “Both expansive and intimate, straightforward and elliptical—described by Atxaga in languid, unadorned prose. . . . A quietly remarkable offering from the first name in Basque literature.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
