Review of the book Patria by Fernando Aramburu

The good side of my Christmas holiday during a lockdown is that I had quite a lot of free time to read, so I used it to finish ‘Patria’ (translated into English as ‘Homeland’) by Fernando Aramburu, a 600 page book (the division in short chapters is of huge help).

The novel became a literary phenomenon in Spain, it won several literary awards, has been translated in several languages and made into an HBO short series (also recommended!).

The novel goes through the life of two families during 40 years in the Basque Country. It was published in 2016 – five years after the Basque separatist organisation ETA announced the definitive cessation of its armed activity and two years before the complete dissolution of all its structures and end of its political initiative. Although ETA is not the main topic of the book, the impact it has on the life of these two families is so deep, that it becomes a protagonist itself. According to Fernando Aramburu, the author, it’s a book about forgiveness. It’s about the trauma the members of these families experience because of years of terrorism and division. When narrating such complex historical events, it’s more powerful to tell human stories to give an idea of the atmosphere and the effects on society, rather than the other way round. Such situations lead ordinary people to take decisions between remaining silent or speaking up and to take sides. As a reader, I asked myself: “what would I have done?”.

So many other topics, such as illness, homosexuality, marriage, loyalty, are touched that the story is universal and accessible to non-Spanish readers. The main events are revealed from the beginning, the story is not linear, it goes back and forth in time. The puzzle pieces of the protagonists’ life intertwine and details are revealed little by little. In a way knowing how it ends from the beginning takes the edge off, as the reader is spared from bad surprises.

The nine characters are all struggling to go on or build their own life. In my opinion the most interesting one is Miren. Her son is an ETA member, a murderer, however she supports him no matter what, at the price of losing her best friend. She remains solid in her position because putting that into question would mean that it was all for nothing. Her bitterness towards her friend, the victim’s wife, protects her from a bigger pain. Questioning her position, her life choices, would be more painful than losing her best friend.

‘Patria‘ made me reflect on how polarised we are in the public discourse, how little space for greys there is. The dominant ideology can be strong or weak, the strongest it is, the smaller the space for alternatives. When an ideology dominates a society, there are no other public positions allowed. There is only one way to be Basque, Txato is and feels Basque but his way of feeling and living it is not allowed, and his friends are too scared to publicly be on his side, because it goes against the dominant position – ETA’s.

The author uses some words in Basque in the text, everyday words in the life of the protagonists such as dad, mom, fighter, police. It’s true that the connotation of words does change when they are translated into another language. In this case they also help creating an atmosphere. If you can, I would recommend to read the book in Spanish. The writing is brilliant, the writer passes from « I » to « he/she » when talking about the same person in the same paragraph, constantly changing the point of view and adapting the language to the characters.