Water over Stones
A Novel
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A perceptive, moving novel about life and death in the Basque Country, from the author of Nevada Days.
Bernardo Atxaga’s Water over Stones follows a group of interconnected people in a small village in the Basque Country. It opens with the story of a young boy who has returned from his French boarding school to his uncle’s bakery, where his family hopes he will speak again. He’s been silent since an incident in which he threw a stone at a teacher for reasons unknown. With the assistance of twin brothers who take him to a river in the forest, he’ll recover his speech. As the years pass, those twins, now adults, will be part of a mining strike in the Ugarte region, and so take up the mantle of the narrative, just as others will after them.
Water over Stones is similar in nature to Atxaga’s earlier books Obabakoak and The Accordionist’s Son, as it weaves in themes of friendship, nature, and death. Yet in capturing a span of time from the early 1970s, when the shadow of the Franco dictatorship still loomed, to 2017, when these boys must learn to leave their old beliefs behind and move on, Atxaga finds new richness and depth in familiar subjects. As threads of water run over stones in the river, so these lives run together, and, over time, technology and industry bring new changes as the wheel of life turns.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Atxaga (Nevada Days) offers a remarkable and sprawling story of a friendship over five decades in the Basque country. During a sexual assault at age 14 by Elías's school warden, Elías retaliates by stabbing him with a corkscrew. He then begins displaying signs of selective mutism, and his mother sends him to the town of Ugarte, where he befriends twin siblings Martín and Luis. In the mid-1980s, Martín's participation in strikes at a local mine escalates beyond picketing, and in 2012, recovering from a car accident, Luis is confronted by feverish memories of how he supported Martín's violent actions during the strikes. As Martín's daughter deals with sudden health issues, Luis asks Martín's help to get in touch with Elías, now living in Texas. Atxaga expertly manages the pacing and character descriptions, with even offhand statements from minor characters going a long way, as when Martín and Luis's father comments on Elías's condition, subtly foreshadowing Luis's accident. As the years go on, an intricate study emerges of what it means for the characters to rely on each other as they grow older. It's a twisting and rewarding story, and one readers will savor until the lovely finish.
