Coming Soon...

Little Brother 
an odyssey to Europe
by Ibrahima Balde and Amets Arzallus Antia 

Translated from the Basque by Timberlake Wertenbaker

Coming Soon...

Bilbao – New York – Bilbao
by Kirmen Uribe

Translated from the Basque by Elizabeth Macklin

Coming Soon...

Perfect Happiness
by Anjel Lertxundi 

Translated from the Basque by Amaia Gabantxo

Coming Soon...

The Red Notebook
by Arantxa Urretabizkaia

Translated from the Basque by Kristin Addis

Dear Aitite

Two Letters All at Once

Old Martin receives two letters from the Basque Country at his new home in Boise, Idaho and his grandson Jimmy asks why he gets too many letters from Europe, but he is unable to share enough. He always wanted to come to America but hadn't planned to settle here for the rest of his life so he didn't learn to speak English well, and now he cannot share his stories and most importantly how he immigrated to America, to his grandson in the language. Now an 80-year-old man, Martin has nothing much to do: spends time tending his lorategi (garden), always has arguments with his Irish daughter-in-law, gets his hands on chocolate pudding and likes to think like shepherds do, as he calls it. The two letters brought back the news of death of his two closest friends back home and as he dwells on the contents of those letters, many of his lost old memories find their way back in and now he wants to put them down so as not forget them again.

As Martin narrates, three loggers Beltza, Iharra and himself enjoyed each other's company though they were completely different in characters: haughty and swaggering Beltza would conquest girls while Iharra would shy away from having to listen to his romances; Martin was quite a dancer; and all three would drink at the bar, sing or even engage in a ruffle with the young men from other town. Martin enjoyed both the bleakness of the landscape and he thought the richness of the festivals and celebrations at home was all that is in the world. But this untouched harmony was intruded when an old man appeared in the town with a cylindrical stone for lifting contest. Beltza gave it a try and when Iharra too wanted to lift the stone Beltza made fun of him among his surrounding girls; a crack opened in the friendship between them. Martin tried to be fair with both of his friends: first tried to stop them from fighting against each other but then tried to be neutral when the unstoppable competition thing – created and flared by the old man – progressed because then nobody knew what plan the old man had up his sleeves. What follows is the Martin's thirst for spying and eavesdropping at his friends' training places and he comes across the treacherous swindle woven by the old man using his two best friends as baits who will be forever mad at each other because of this, nevertheless Old Martin couldn't do anything to stop it, rather he used the competition, amid fear and sadness, in his favor to win himself the sum to buy ticket for America.

Strong-willed Old Martin's frank and jolly narration makes us laugh and feel sad at times. Old Martin's monologue is easily identifiable and original to the nuances of old age and also of the immigrated people having difficulty absorbing the new way of life or culture shock. He tries to draw out a clearer picture of himself at this age, reflecting upon episodes, what he did and what he does and trying to be true to himself, though he is easily distracted by the present as he tries to concentrate on his past, feeling slightly melancholic. Two Letters All at Once evokes humor and sadness as the Old Martin recounts his vigorous and dreamy past, his unlikely fate and little gloomy but a complete life as an immigrant with few complains. This is a story born out of a life traversing two nations and identities. Basque words and the illustrations give both the story and Old Martin a unique and refreshing character – simple and memorable.

When a Snake Stares at a Bird

When a Snake Stares at a Bird starts with a snake hypnotizing a bird with its stare, and the spell is broken when Grandpa Martin – atop a donkey and who is to show him around the town – tells his grandson Sebastian to hurl a rock toward the bird. Sebastian had heard from his father that Grandpa was not right in his mind and he is awestruck when he witnesses Grandpa conversing with a robin, free from being bewitched and then after reprimanding the snake. And of course Grandpa is suffering from forgetfulness, and asks his grandson who he is, even before a longtime passes. A little later, Sebastian follows his grandfather yet to be surprised again, when the chained town dogs stop barking and wag their tail when his scrawny Grandpa passes by on his donkey. Grandpa takes Sebastian to a bar and gets him drunk when in fact he wants to take away the sadness of his grandson, while at home Sebastian's aunt and uncle take this chance to rebuke Grandpa Martin for his foolishness. Grandpa responds with his usual intention of going to Terranova once and for all meanwhile Sebastian in his drunken stupor wants everybody to know that his grandfather can talk to animals.

Soon Sebastian loses the company of his grandfather, and starts hanging out in the plaza on his own, and there falls in love with a girl.  He shares the secret about his grandfather's ability to discourse with animals with his girlfriend. Sebastian realizes that everybody in the town seems to know his grandfather has obsession with going to Terranova. While Sebastian is busy with his love affair Grandpa Martin plans something. Sebastian decides to follow his grandfather at night in his secret voyages, wanting to know more about his Grandpa's ability, wherever he goes, only to discover that Grandfather has finally made up his mind.  We are left with parting texts drawn by a flock of geese.

Like in the other novella of the Two Basque Stories, Atxaga with his exuberant narrative style is able to create a character of an old man with some unique inner life hidden away from the rest and the balance of subtleness and sharpness of the characters makes the story memorable. Part coming-of-age and part magic realism, When a Snake Stares at a Bird is one such story of a neglected old man who harbors a private dream and possesses an unearthly power. The story draws us into a giant world every individual has inside him and directs us to relate with primordial connections we feel toward each other at the same time rejoicing love and freedom with a mystic touch.

Author: Bernardo Atxaga

Translator: Nere Lete
Illustrator: Antton Olariaga

Publisher: Centre for Basque Studies, University of Nevada

Page Count: 120pp

Price: $19.95

Author Photo Credit: https://www.atxaga.eus/bernardo-atxaga/bernardo-atxagas-literary-universe

Review Copy Courtesy: Centre for Basque Studies, University of Navada

To the Lighthouse

When Nerea's mother Luisa is suddenly struck by amnesia, the graveness of the situation puts Nerea in stress, burdened with guilt and fear of losing her mother's memory forever. The photographs from Nerea's childhood bring back memories of the lives they shared, but now she feels it is parting away. Luisa is in hospital bed, and she doesn't recognize her daughter or son, and of little she speaks Nerea has no way to connect what she means. Nerea belatedly calls her aunt Dolores in Germany to let her know about her sister, feeling helpless. After all, she was the one who has known Luisa in the best way. Aunt's visit and Luisa's reaction thereafter hints a long forgotten episode of their lives which Luisa never shared with her children. 

Nerea is torn between her job as a journalist, the guilt of not taking seriously her mother's early symptoms, her role as a wife and mother which has now seemed to her out of balance and her mother's condition. It is hard for her to cope with this status, and she sees no way out, until her reluctant aunt shares the story of Luisa's past. In the meantime, Nerea has her own trouble dealing with a faded memory¹ and now sudden appearance of an individual from the past has made her further restless. We see, Nerea and Luisa bearing almost the same fate of being haunted by lost love and longing. The culmination of the novel is Nerea and Luisa trying a way out, to help her mother recover her memory or at least her deeply buried wish be fulfilled. Within this escape, Nerea too finds her way back into the life, refilled with courage.

1.       "We repaint ourselves endlessly, putting one event on top of another, forgetting the one underneath or thinking we've forgotten. But one day we take a hit,"

There are so many stories that are unspoken of², and the motherhood bears it all, embraces the new way to find and furnish happiness in many lives. But something stays, as a part of our identity, only to be realized by few who experience the same or have the need to know. The dramatic appeal of the conversations or images/photographs in the novel captures the tense ambience where memory and love dominates all in existence.

2.       The things that are not said earlier cannot always be said later, and one cannot give after death hugs that were left ungiven in life.

Senses and dreams revolve around questions people try to solve in their lives. The liveliness can suddenly be turned into an unexpected loss, and in this horror of being forgotten Nerea struggles to help her mother, and tries to relive the life her mother and aunt lived. The story suggests, we try to keep the tragedies to ourselves, as if they are our personality, but the fear of being left alone also torments us. The fate and the choices — Nerea tries to clear this fog, and attempts to make the best of what's left to her. The references in the Her Mother's Hands also point to the need to be daring, to seek for the second chance. The novel's subtlety is in its meaning that life is divided into precious moments and we have little time to appreciate or be nostalgic except for to live it with courage.

Author: Karmele Jaio

Translator: Kristin Addis

Publisher: Parthian Books

Page Count: 122

Price: $ 11.99

Photo Credit: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karmele_Jaio

Review Copy Courtesy: Parthian Books

Under the Lady Liberty

While the German fleet is advancing toward the coast of Manhattan with many successes behind them already, the little man (Adolf Hitler) determined to take his revenge, aboard one of the ships, commands his army to bring Charlie Chaplin to him, who made fun of him in his movie The Great Dictator. Now all set with the plan to attack as they land on the American soil, the little man wants an orchestra to play Wagner for him and very soon his army brings the famous comedian to the ship for torture, the little man has decided for him. In other time and part of the world, precisely in France in the 1880s, a man named Olivier Legrand gives up his job in the mine drifts and starts working as a stevedore in a port in his desire to do something valuable. This is the same time when The Statue of Liberty was being unassembled and loaded into a ship to take it to America. And one morning, just in time, Olivier, as a stowaway for America, finds a suitable cradle in the crown of the Lady Liberty; and starts his crooked-all-the-way voyage for a new life. 

In this alternate history, 'the little man' Adolf pulls off the fingernails of Chaplin in what is called the Marco Polo code, and his men do the same to Pablo Picasso, preventing him to complete Guernica. The two lives – of Chaplin and Olivier – and two stories run parallelly, with few commonalities and seem connected though separated by time. The Nazis have conquered all of Europe and have landed on America too, and as the story unfolds, while the German fleet captures Manhattan, taking city and the streets under control, Chaplin escapes through the porthole of the cellar and is rescued by an old man – hunchbacked Olivier; the two parallel stories converge in an unlikely fate. The little man has ordered to play Wagner incessantly throughout the newly conquered city of New York, meanwhile Chaplin, who was beaten and injured by the Nazis, gets care of the old Olivier, who already has the responsibility of taking care of his bedridden wife and who sneaking under the eyes of the German soldiers gets Chaplin a typewriter on his request – to quench his thirst for writing another theatre play… In the culmination of the novel, we witness – a silent cinema, rather in dark – an insomniac Adolf fighting almost tramp-turned Chaplin, with a result that has never happened, yet that we are curious to know.

Cano takes smallest details from the world history and turns it into both ironic and horrendous sequence. Especially, the frenzy mindset of the little man, already a victor of the war, and who is still compulsive to take personal revenge with Chaplin for his portrayal in The Great Dictator, brings wonderment. In agreement with the story, Cano convinces us how lives can connect and be shaped and gently fuses the dark and the light with candid narrative full of lyricism. Blade of Light carries the sentiments and thoughts of gentle folks who lived during the war, the impulse of the artists fighting on their ground and the cruelty of the dictator suffered with his own mania – Blade of Light is something born out of ordinary and extraordinary characters and stories we're close to witness!

Author: Harkaitz Cano

Translator: Amaia Gabantxo

Publisher: Centre for Basque Studies, University of Nevada

Page Count: 96pp

Price: $19.95

Author Photo Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harkaitz_Cano_2014.jpg

Review Copy Courtesy: Centre for Basque Studies, University of Nevada