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  • Published: 15 October 2008
  • ISBN: 9780099492771
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $26.99

The Accordionist's Son




A magnificent family epic, haunted by the shadow of the Spanish Civil War, by award-winning Basque author Bernardo Atxaga.

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.

  • Published: 15 October 2008
  • ISBN: 9780099492771
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $26.99

About the author

Bernardo Atxaga

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 The Accordionist's Son, have won critical acclaim in Spain and abroad. His works have been translated into twenty-five languages.

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Praise for The Accordionist's Son

The first great Basque novel

Times Literary Supplement

Each character is a world, a story marvellously integrated into the whole...A master storyteller has become a fabulous chronicler of reality. If Obabakoak charmed us, The Accordionist's Son charms and moves us

La Vanguardia

Bernardo Atxaga's books are performing an important service to his people and his language

Times Literary Supplement

In all his work, Atxaga delves into the impact of the political on individual lives. What is most moving in The Accordionist's Son is the push and counter-push of these pressures on a believable individual (and Margaret Jull Costa's elegant and unfussy translation gives us a clear view of him in English)

Guardian

This most delicate and personal of novels packs a powerful political message

Independent

Charming and compelling

Big Issue

This is a richly textured, beautifully-written glimpse into a world that makes its otherworldliness felt

Sunday Business Post

A briliantly inventive writer... terribly moving and wildly funny

A. S. Byatt

A magical novel that exlores friendship and memory, language and loss

Metro

Incredibly powerful... magnificently written

Financial Times