Homeland
Fernando Aramburu
Translated by Alfred MacAdam
02 April 2020
9781509858040Synopsis
The international bestseller, longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2021. Fernando Aramburu's Homeland is an epic and heartbreaking story of two best friends whose families are divided by the conflicting loyalties of terrorism.
‘It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book that was so persuasive and moving’ – Mario Vargas Llosa, author of Time of the Hero.
The Basque Country, Spain, 2011.
Miren and Bittori have lived side by side in a small Basque town all their lives. Their husbands play cards together, their children play and eventually go out drinking together. The terrorist threat posed by ETA seems to affect them little.
When Bittori’s husband starts receiving threatening letters – demanding money, accusing him of being a police informant – she turns to her friend for help. But Miren’s loyalties are torn: her son has just been recruited as a terrorist and to denounce them would be to condemn her own flesh and blood. Tensions rise, relationships fracture, and events move towards a tragic conclusion . . .
‘Is Aramburu the Tolstoy of the Basque country, author of a Spanish language War and Peace?’ – Guardian
Few books make me cry these days but by the final page I found my eyes prickling with tears. By examining his society in such close detail, Aramburu encourages us to reflect on the bitter divisions in our own world and the opportunities we have for reconciliation.Sunday Times
It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book that was so persuasive and moving, so intelligently conceived.Mario Vargas Llosa
Is Aramburu the Tolstoy of the Basque country, author of a Spanish language War and Peace that lays bare the pain of forty pointless years of separatist terrorism?Guardian
