Atxaga, Bernardo

New York. 1993. Pantheon Books. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket . 0679424040. Translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa. 226 pages. hardcover. Jacket image is a board game ‘The Game of the Goose.’ Jacket design by Marjorie Anderson. keywords: Literature Translated Spain Basque. FROM THE PUBLISHER - This shimmering, unpredictable novel - possessed of the timelessness of a fairy tale and informed by the lore of the oral tradition - tells of life in a remote, exotic Basque village. Now available in paperback, this highly-acclaimed book is a playful and ingenious gathering of interwoven stories. 'At once terribly moving and wildly funny.' - A.S. Byatt. A unique and stunning international literary event: winner of Spain's National Prize for Literature, OBABAKOAK, a work of fiction, is one of only several hundred books to be written in four centuries in Basque, a language understood by few (the author himself had to translate his book into Spanish to broaden its appeal throughout Europe, where it has be published to ecstatic acclaim). OBABAKOAK means ‘the people and things of Obaba (a Basque village),' and the narrator weaves a tale reminiscent of Scheherazade's. The village is peopled with rascals, innocents, intellectuals, shepherds, hunters, idiots, and creatures of superstition, and the interconnection of their private worlds is brilliantly evoked. Parody, riddles texts within texts abound in a book that is playful, yet always tinged with melancholy. Possessed of the timelessness of the fairy tale and informed by the lore of the oral tradition - and offering a good-humored spin through metaliterature and intertextuality - OBABAKOAK is a multi-faceted and rousing celebration of the art of storytelling. inventory #18187 ISBN: 0679424040.