Obabakoak

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Obabakoak
Obabakoak.jpg
First edition (Basque)
Author Bernardo Atxaga
Translator Margaret Jull Costa
LanguageBasque
PublisherErein
Publication date
1988
Publication placeSpain
Published in English
1992
Pages402
ISBN 8475682189

Obabakoak is a 1988 novel by the Basque writer Bernardo Atxaga. The title can be translated as "Those from Obaba". The book won the National Literature Prize for Narrative. [1] It is the most internationally successful book in Basque and has been translated into numerous languages. The original Basque version was published by Editorial Erein in 1988, and the author's own Spanish version was published by Ediciones B in 1989. An English translation by Margaret Jull Costa based on the Spanish version was published in 1992.

Contents

Contents

Themes

Atxaga described the idea behind the village Obaba: "Obaba is an interior landscape. You don't remember all the places of the past, but what sticks in the memory is this window, that stone, the bridge. Obaba is the country of my past, a mixture of the real and the emotional." [2]

Reception

Maggie Traugott of The Independent wrote: "Atxaga loves parody, riddles, manipulating texts within texts, which could of course all turn pretentious and hard-going if it weren't handled with charm and dexterity." Traugott wrote that the Basque language "has been 'hiding away like a hedgehog', fortifying itself largely on an oral tradition. Atxaga has not only awakened the hedgehog, but has brought it into the context of his own wide and idiosyncratic reading of world literature." [3]

See also

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References

  1. "Premios Nacionales de Literatura / Modalidad Narrativa: Premiados". mcu.es. Ministry of Culture . Retrieved 2012-04-09.
  2. Eaude, Michael (2001-10-20). "A bridge across the great divide". The Guardian . Retrieved 2012-04-09.
  3. Traugott, Maggie (1992-08-30). "Waking the hedgehog". The Independent . Retrieved 2012-04-09.