The Accordionist's Son

Bernardo Atxaga

09/2008 · Random House

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The Accordionist's Son is a remarkably powerful and accomplished novel, exploring the life of David Imaz, a former inhabitant of the Basque village of Obaba, now living in exile and ill-health on a ranch in California.

As a young man, David divides his time between his uncle's ranch and his life in the village, where he reluctantly practises the accordion on the insistence of his authoritarian father. Increasingly aware of the long shadow cast by the Spanish Civil War, he begins to unravel the story of the conflict, his father's association with the fascists and his uncle's opposition and brave decision to hide a wanted republican.

Caught betweeen the two men, the course of his own life is changed forever when he agrees to shelter a group of students on the run from the military police.

Translated by Margaret Jull Costa.

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Bernardo Atxaga was born in Gipuzkoa in Spain in 1951 and lives in the Basque Country, writing in Basque and Spanish. He is a prizewinning novelist and poet, whose books, including Obabakoak and Seven Houses in France, have won critical acclaim in Spain and abroad. His works have been translated into twenty-two languages.

Margaret Jull Costa has been a literary translator from Spanish and Portugese for over twenty years, translating such writers as José Saramago, Eça de Queiroz, Luis Fernando Verissimo and Fernando Pessoa. Her work has brought her a number of prizes, the most recent of which was the 2010 Premio Valle-Inclán for Javier Marías’ Your Face Tomorrow 3: Poison, Shadow and Farewell.