ilsabing

I am deep into my research for a ten day stay around Basque country and am looking for reading recommendations, both fiction and non-fiction.

I have the following:
Basque History of the World (am enjoying this slowly on audio with the book as back-up)
That Old Bilbao Moon: The Passion and Resurrection of a City by Joseba Zulaika (I haven't started this yet)
and I just picked up the novel Sweet Promised Land by Robert Laxalt

One area I am having a hard time sourcing is the physical/geologic coastal area (Basque Coast Geopark).

Any recommendations?

kimhe

Anything from THE Basque writer Bernardo Atxaga: http://www.atxaga.eus/en/

Atxaga about his most famous book Obabakoak: "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."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ction.reviews3

I also highly recommend the movie Vacas (Cows) by Julio Medem: http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?...50C0A965958260

I also recommend Medem's documentary about the political background/ETA question etc from 2003, The Basque Ball - Skin against stone. Things have clearly improved since then, but the tensions are still right under the surface.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/200...lmfestival2003
https://www.amazon.com/Basque-Ball-A...=1&*entries*=0

kimhe

And here is a fabulous and fun 75 mins documentary about the Basque food culture. It also takes us through coastal areas, landscapes, villages, towns and cities. Starts here (five parts): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jbipbzoc1Y

You'll might perhaps especially like this episode (the fishing port/market in Pasajes in the outskirts of San Sebastián, barnacle fishing in Bakio not far from Bilbao, and then back to seafood heaven in small Getaria just west of San Sebastián): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqdjeGqnVKc

Robert2016

Others by Robert Laxalt:
A Cup of Tea in Pamplona
The Land of My Father's: A Son Returns to the Basque Country


Rodney Gallop:
A Book of the Basques

Paddy Woodworth:
The Basque Country, a Cultural History

ilsabing

Thank you both! Getting to read deeply on a location before I go is part of the great joys of travel for me.

Kimhe, I see that Basque Ball is also available in full on youtube so I will surely watch that and the two you link above in the coming weeks. I think I have found Vacas as well. This makes me very happy.

I located used copies of Cup of Tea in Pamplona, Basque Country, a Cultural History and Obabakoak so I will be well set and with trails to follow when I begin to run short.

I have ten days in this area and it's already seeming like not nearly enough time! Choices, choices!

kimhe

Thanks Robert for the tip about Paddy Woodworth's
The Basque Country, a Cultural History. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...Basque_Country

Woodworth comments on the whole Basque Ball documentary together with the film historian Rob Stone, an extremely interesting extra option on the dvd.

kja

You might consider some of the fiction by Trevanian, perhaps one of his books of short stories (e.g., <i>Hot Night in the City</i -- if you are patient, you'll find some of his delightful references to traditional Basque traditions.

ilsabing

kja ! ! Thanks very much. I had to peek to see why that name was familiar and it's because of Eiger Sanction. I will surely look into that.

I've had a million questions I wanted to ask you while planning this new itinerary. Possibly a million and a half

kja

It's the same Trevanian, but his suspense novels are in a very different style than the books in which he shares Basque proverbs -- or things he pretends to be Basque.

kimhe

This clip from the documentary La Pelota Vasca/The Basque Ball tells tons of the strongheaded Basques and the both very physical and almost magical culture up here. The region's most beloved singer-songwriter Mikel Laboa (1934-2008) sings, accompanied by the plain fantastic San Sebastián city choir Orfeón Donostiarra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOkv1rRfdhA

About the unique Mikel Laboa, child psychatrist and - with Bernardo Atxagas words - "a tall Viking warrior with piercing blue eyes, trapped inside the nervous nature of the singer": https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...laboa-obituary

Every now and then the Orféon Donostiarra sings in the 18th century Santa María del Coro church in the Parte vieja/Old town in San Sebastián: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orfe%C3%B3n_Donostiarra

ilsabing

kimhe, my very *very* favorite thing when I travel is to see a concert in a cathedral or church. I've been hoping that I could catch a performance of the Orféon Donostiarra but there is only one date in September and until I switched my plans around it wasn't possible. But now II *can* make the performance on Sept 23rd, though it's sadly not in the Santa María (from what I can tell). I will need to figure out how to buy an advance ticket. Yay!


kja, I started another thread specific to my drive from the coast into La Rioja. If you get a chance will you tell me about how you arranged your monastery tours, either here or in that thread?

ilsabing

Oh, now I see that performance is in Soria and I won't be near there. Too bad.

kimhe, If you see other classical or choral concerts in the Sept 22-23-24 I would be very happy to know about them.

kja

Info posted on your other thread....

Robert2016

lisa,
We heard the spectacular Orfeón in January on the Plaza de la Constitución in Donostia while attending the Tamborrada.

There's no concert scheduled yet that I see at Donostia's Teatro Victoria Eugenia for your dates but you can check later on here:

http://www.victoriaeugenia.com/progr...pectaculos.php

For the Kursaal performing arts center, I don't see anything now for your dates (you'll miss the Quincena Musical that runs until the end of August) but you can check the Kursaal schedule for September later here:

http://www.kursaal.eus/es/entradas/

Also check the schedule for special events for Donostia's turn as Cultural Capital of Europe during 2016 here:
http://dss2016.eu/en/?view=default

Robert2016

That schedule for the special events, Donostia-San Sebastian Cultural Capital of Europe doesn't seem to work.

You can check special events for 2016 here-
http://www.sansebastianturismo.com/e.../donostia-2016

kimhe

Members of the Orfeón Donsotiarra sings during mass in Santa María del Coro every now and then, and you might contact the tourist info to ask if they know if anything is likely to happen on your dates. But in general, I don't think these are scheduled events, anyhow I've just stumbled upon some fantastic Orfeón moments in here. And there's also the oficial music program for the basilica: http://capillasantamaria.com/

ilsabing

kimhe and Robert2016, thank you so very much for the links! I do realize that I am still a little early to be finding live performance listings for my dates, but knowing where to look is well over half the battle. I will circle back to check these as my departure nears.

I did manage to find an interesting performance on my first day back in Toulouse so I know they are out there. The internet makes some things so much easier!!

ilsabing

For anyone who finds this thread later, I have two recent finds to add.

I would say first that they neither is a perfect story and I can not vouch for any level of authenticity but I thought there were both very compelling and satisfying reading. I got them both on audio from my library and I HIGHLY recommend LISTENing to the books. Hearing the Basque towns and names spoken confidently and repeatedly is something I have been looking for to help train my ear before I go. Added bonus is that they both flesh out a different aspect of the Basque backstory (imperfectly or not).

Guernica: A Novel
by Dave Boling
A family saga set against the destruction of the Basque town of Guernica in 1937, Boling’s debut follows the Ansotegui clan: eldest son Justo works a farm; middle son Josepe fishes; and youngest son Father Xabier tends to parishioners in nearby Bilbao. Vignettes of their youths glimpse their settling into their vocations, while scenes of Justo’s marriage to Mariangeles give way to the story of their dance-loving daughter, Miren. Her warmth and twirling skirt snare the marital attention of Miguel Navarro, and they, their own daughter, Catalina, and other Ansoteguis find themselves subjected to the maelstrom depicted in Pablo Picasso’s frantic artistic indictment of Guernica. (Boling grants cameo scenes to Picasso and the German air commander.) Mutually devastated by the apparent deaths of their wives and daughters, Justo and son-in-law Miguel improve their previously tense relationship, while author Boling cultivates a subplot with a somewhat melodramatic but definitely Lazarus-like conclusion that restores some happiness to the family. Enhanced by Boling’s knowledge of Basque culture, this is a convincing fictionalization of an infamous act of war.

All That Followed: A Novel
by Gabriel Urza
It's 2004 in Muriga, a quiet town in Spain's northern Basque Country, a place with more secrets than inhabitants. Five years have passed since the kidnapping and murder of a young local politician-a family man and father-and the town's rhythms have almost returned to normal. But in the aftermath of the Atocha train bombings in Madrid, an act of terrorism that rocked a nation and a world, the townspeople want a reckoning of Muriga's own troubled past: Everyone knows who pulled the trigger five years ago, but is the young man now behind bars the only one to blame? All That Followed peels away the layers of a crime complicated by history, love, and betrayal. The accounts of three townspeople in particular-the councilman's beautiful young widow, the teenage radical now in jail for the crime, and an aging American teacher hiding a traumatic past of his own-hold the key to what really happened. And for these three, it's finally time to confront what they can find of the truth.
Inspired by a true story, All That Followed is a powerful, multifaceted novel about a nefarious kind of violence that can take hold when we least expect. Urgent, elegant, and gorgeously atmospheric, Urza's debut is a book for the world we live in now, and it marks the arrival of a brilliant new writer to watch.

kimhe

Thanks, especially the Urza novel sounds interesting, the ETA theme still lies right under the surface in most things up here. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/bo...urza.html?_r=0