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Overview
In the heart of Spain’s Basque Country, two friends, Miren and Bittori, find their worlds upended by violence. When Bittori’s husband runs afoul of the separatist organization ETA, a terrorist group of which Miren’s son, Joxe Mari, is a member, both women must choose between their friendship and their families. Moving back and forth in time and told through the eyes of a rich cast of characters from all walks of life, Fernando Aramburu’s dazzling novel probes the lasting legacy of conflict. A work of nearly unbearable suspense, Homeland is a searing examination of truth, reconciliation, and coming to terms with history.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780593310892 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 09/22/2020 |
| Pages: | 608 |
| Sales rank: | 388,216 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.20(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.50(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
1. HIGH HEELS ON PARQUET
Poor thing, there she goes: about to crash into him the way a wave crashes into rocks. A little foam and goodbye. Doesn’t she realize he doesn’t even bother to open the door for her? His slave and more than his slave.
And those heels, those red lips when she’s already forty-five years old: what for? With your standing, girl, with your position and education, what would make you carry on like a teenager? If aita were here to see . . .
Getting into the car, Nerea glanced up at the window where she assumed her mother would, as usual, be spying on her through the curtain. Even if she couldn’t see her from the street, she knew Bittori was staring at her, whispering to herself, there goes the poor thing, a trophy for that egoist who never thought for a second about making someone happy. Doesn’t she realize that a woman must be really desperate if she has to seduce her husband after twelve years of marriage? It’s a good thing they never had children.
Nerea waved goodbye before getting into the taxi. Her mother, on the fourth floor, hidden behind the curtain, looked away. Beyond the tiled roofs was a wide strip of ocean, the lighthouse on Santa Clara Island, tenuous clouds in the distance. The weather lady predicted sunshine. And her mother looked again toward the street and the taxi, which was now out of sight.
She stared beyond the roof tiles, beyond the island and the blue horizon line, beyond the remote clouds, and even beyond that into the past forever lost, searching for scenes from her daughter’s wedding. And she saw Nerea once again in the Good Shepherd Cathedral, dressed in white, with her bouquet and her excessive happiness. Watching her daughter leave—so slim, such a smile, so pretty—Bittori felt a premonition come over her. At night, when she went back to her house alone, she was on the verge of confessing her fears to her photograph of Txato. But she had a headache, and besides, when it came to family matters, especially his daughter, Txato was sentimental. Tears came easily to his eyes, and even though photos don’t cry, I know what I’m talking about.
The high heels were supposed to make Quique voracious. Click, click, click—she’d dented the parquet. Let’s see if she punches holes in it. To keep peace in the house, she didn’t scold her. They were only going to be there for a minute. They’d come to say goodbye. And him, it was nine o’clock in the morning and his breath stank of whiskey or of one of those drinks he sold.
“Ama, are you sure you’re going to be okay by yourself?”
“Why don’t you take the bus to the airport? The taxi from here to Bilbao is going to cost a fortune.”
He: “Don’t worry about that.”
He pointed out they had baggage, that the bus would be uncomfortable, slow.
“Right, but you have enough time, don’t you?”
“Ama, don’t make a big deal out of it. We decided to take a taxi. It’s the easiest way to get there.”
Quique was beginning to lose patience. “It’s the only comfortable way to get there.”
He added that he was going to step outside to smoke a cigarette—“while you two talk.” That man reeked of perfume. But his mouth stank of liquor, and it was only nine in the morning. He said goodbye checking his face in the living-room mirror. Conceited ass. And then—was he being authoritarian, cordial but curt?—to Nerea: “Don’t take too long.”
Five minutes, she promised. Which turned into fifteen. Alone, she said to her mother that this trip to London meant a lot to her.
“I just don’t see what you have to do with your husband’s clients. Or is it that you’ve started working in his business without telling me?”
“In London I’m going to make a serious attempt to save our marriage.”
“Another?”
“The last one.”
“So what’s the plan this time? Going to stay close to him so he doesn’t take off with the first woman he sees?”
“Ama, please. Don’t make it harder for me.”
“You look great. Going to a new hairdresser?”
“I still go to the same one.”
Nerea suddenly lowered her voice. As soon as she started whispering, her mother turned to look toward the front door, as if she were afraid some stranger was spying on her. No, nothing. They’d given up on the idea of adopting a baby. How they had talked about it! Maybe a Chinese baby, a Russian, a little black one. Boy or girl. Nerea still held on to her illusion, but Quique had given up. He wants his own child, flesh of his flesh.
Bittori: “So he’s quoting the Bible now?”
“He thinks he’s up-to-date, but he’s more traditional than rice pudding.”
On her own, Nerea had investigated all the legal formalities involved in adoption and, yes, they satisfied all of them. The money involved was no problem. She was willing to travel to the other end of the world to be a mother. But Quique had cut off the conversation. No, no, and more no.
“That boy’s a bit lacking in sensitivity, don’t you think?”
“He wants a little boy of his own, who looks like him, who will play for La Real some day. He’s obsessed, ama. And he’ll get what he wants. Wow! When he digs in on something! I don’t know with what woman. Some volunteer. Don’t ask me. I don’t have the slightest idea. He’ll rent out some womb, pay whatever you have to pay. As far as I’m concerned, I’d help him find a healthy woman who’d make his wish come true.”
“You’re nuts.”
“I haven’t told him yet, but I imagine I might get a chance in London. I’ve thought it through. I don’t have any right to make him be unhappy.”
They touched cheeks by the front door.
Bittori: okay, she’d be fine on her own, have a great trip. Nerea, out in the hall as she waited for the elevator, said something about bad luck but that we should never give up happiness. Then she suggested her mother change the doormat.
Table of Contents
1 High Heels on Parquet 3
2 Mild October 6
3 With Txato in Polloe 10
4 Where They Live 14
5 Moving by Night 18
6 Txato, Entzun 21
7 Rocks in the Knapsack 25
8 A Distant Episode 29
9 Red 33
10 Telephone Calls 37
11 Flood 40
12 The Garden Wall 44
13 The Ramp, the Bathroom, the Caregiver 49
14 Last Snacks 53
15 Meetings 57
16 Sunday Mass 61
17 A Little Walk 65
18 An Island Vacation 70
19 Discrepancy 74
20 Premature Mourning 79
21 The Best of All of Them 83
22 Memories in a Spiderweb 88
23 Invisible Rope 92
24 A Toy Bracelet 96
25 Don’t Come 102
26 With Them or with Us 107
27 Family Dinner 111
28 Between Brother and Sister 116
29 A Two-Colored Leaf 120
30 To Empty Memory 124
31 Dialogue in Darkness 129
32 Papers and Objects 133
33 Graffiti 137
34 Mental Pages 141
35 A Box of Flames 145
36 From A to B 149
37 The Cake of Discord 153
38 Books 158
39 I the Hatchet, You the Serpent 162
40 Two Years Without a Face 168
41 Her Life in the Mirror 172
42 The London Incident 176
43 A Formal Couple 182
44 Precautions 187
45 Strike Day 191
46 A Rainy Day 198
47 What Became of Them? 202
48 Late Shift 207
49 Face the Music 211
50 A Cop’s Leg 215
51 In the Quarry 219
52 A Great Dream 225
53 The Enemy in the House 229
54 The Lie About Fever 233
55 Like Their Mothers 237
56 Plums 242
57 In the Reserves 245
58 A Walk in the Park 251
59 A Thread of Glass 255
60 Doctors with Doctors 261
61 A Pleasing Smallness 266
62 House Search 270
63 Political Material 274
64 Where Is My Son? 278
65 Blessing 282
66 Klaus-Dieter 287
67 Three Weeks of Love 291
68 Graduation 296
69 The Break 302
70 Homelands and Follies 307
71 Twisted Daughter 311
72 A Sacred Mission 315
73 If You’re Here, You’re In 321
74 Personal Liberation Movement 326
75 A Porcelain Vase 330
76 Go On, Cry in Peace 337
77 Evil Plans 342
78 The Short Course 346
79 The Touch of the Jellyfish 351
80 The Oria Cell 356
81 Only the Sad Doctor Went to See Her Off 360
82 He’s My Boyfriend 364
83 A Bit of Bad Luck 368
84 Basque Murderers 373
85 The Apartment 379
86 He Had Other Plans 384
87 Mushrooms and Nettles 388
88 Bloody Bread 393
89 The Air in the Dining Room 398
90 Fright 404
91 The List 410
92 The Child She Loved Most 415
93 The Land of the Silent 421
94 Amaia 426
95 Jug Wine 430
96 Nerea and Solitude 435
97 The Parade of Murderers 441
98 White-Dress Wedding 446
99 The Fourth Member 450
100 The Fall 456
101 “Txoria txori” 460
102 The First Letter 467
103 The Second Letter 472
104 The Third Letter and the Fourth 476
105 Reconciliation 480
106 Captivity Syndrome 486
107 Meetings in the Plaza 490
108 Medical Report 495
109 If the Wind Hits the Burning Coal 500
110 Conversation in the Afternoon 505
111 A Night in Calamocha 510
112 With the Grandson 517
113 Uphill Finish 521
114 A Pane of Glass Between 526
115 Massage Session 531
116 Arab Salon 536
117 The Invisible Son 542
118 Unannounced Visit 548
119 Patience 552
120 The Girl from Ondárroa 557
121 Conversation in the Meeting Room 563
122 Your Jail Is My Jail 568
123 Closed Circle 572
124 Soaking 576
125 Sunday Morning 580
Glossary 587
Reading Group Guide
"Homeland has reminded Spain of the dormant power of literature to shake up society." —Politico Europe
“Magnificent . . . Aramburu’s remarkable novel is an honest and empathetic portrait of suffering and forgiveness, home and family.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Aramburu recounts the lives of ordinary people shattered by events that are ongoing in Spain today even years after ETA has suspended its armed campaign; the reader needs no background in that tangled history to understand that basic, terrible truth. A humane, memorable work of literature.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
***
The questions, discussion topics, and reading list that follow are intended to enhance your reading group’s discussion of Homeland by Fernando Aramburu. Set in Spanish Basque country and taking place over decades, up to the present day, Homeland explores the lives of two families torn apart by violent insurgency.
1. Before reading this novel, did you know about the armed struggle of the ETA in Spain and its truce in 2011? If not, were you able to follow the events of the novel anyway and piece together the basic history? If yes, did you start reading the novel already sympathetic to one side?
2. Why has Aramburu chosen to structure the novel in non-chronological short chapters and many voices? Why are the voices in the third person rather than the first person, which he could have done since each chapter is devoted to a particular character and perspective? And why within the third person, does the author occasionally have an utterance or comment in the first person (for example, “I know what I’m talking about”? (p. 4)).
3. How is this both a universal tale and specific to the rural Basque region of Spain in the late 20th century?
4. Discuss the relationship between Bittori and Miren, at one time “intimate friends” (p. 55) who almost become nuns together (p. 53, “Can you imagine if we had become nuns?”). Also discuss the relationship between Txato and Joxian. What changes their relationships and how do the fallen friendships affect the two families? Can the two families ever be reunited?
5. Describe the two central mother-daughter relationships in the novel, that of Bittori/Nerea and Miren/Aranxta. Compare and contrast the two relationships.
6. How does the Catholic Church play into the novel? What is Don Serapo’s role in his village, and in the ETA conflict? What is the importance of St. Ignatius in the novel and to Basques in general?
7. How is Homeland a novel about violence, including reactions to violence and living with violence? How does violence pervade all of society, both physically and mentally, in the novel? And what is the impact of violence on ordinary people’s lives?
8. The violence poisons the relationship between the two families, but also affects the relationships within each family. How? Discuss how the relationships between husbands and wives, mothers and daughters, siblings.
9. Publishers Weekly writes, “The cast is sprawling—with both matriarchs, husbands, children, spouses, grandchildren—but each’s story is realized masterfully, as the characters look to escape violence however they can, be it exile, alcohol, or love.” Describe how each of the characters attempts to escape the violence and their memories.
10. Why would young people gravitate towards and support or even join the ETA? Why does Joxe Marie join up? How does Gorka react to the draw of the ETA? How does he support Basque culture and separateness from Spain without joining the ETA?
11. Which characters leave the village and why? Are all the reasons for leaving basically the same?
12. Discuss the themes of betrayal, guilt and forgiveness in Homeland. Why does Aranxta plead with Joxe Marie to ask Bittori for forgiveness?
13. There are many descriptions of food in the novel. Both matriarchs are excellent cooks and food is central to both of their lives. What do you learn about Basque food and culture from these descriptions?
14. Bittori, in talking to her husband’s grave, tries to explain Miren’s behavior, “I understand her transformation, even if I don’t approve . . . She became a fanatic of maternal instinct . . . In her place, I might have behaved the same way. How can you turn your back on your own child even when you know he’s doing bad things? Until then, Miren hadn’t taken the slightest interest in politics” (p. 55). Would you have behaved the same way as Miren in her situation? Do you understand and sympathize with her?
15. What is the importance of words in the threats and attacks on Txato? How do the words turn the village against him?
16. Describe Txato as a man. “Txato took his precautions. He wasn’t a fool” (p. 189). Why was he targeted? Why was he ultimately killed?
17. What kind of fathers are Txato and Joxian? Why can’t Xabier have a relationship after Txato dies? Nerea and Aranxta both have complicated relationships with their husbands after Txato is gone as well. How does the violence affect their relationships?
18. Why doesn’t Nerea come home for her father’s funeral or mourning period? How does she grieve her father’s death?
19. Why is it impossible for anyone in the village to remain neutral?
20. Late in the novel, a writer appears at a victims’ conference, “against forgetting”. Is this Aramburu, do you think? The novelist says, “I wrote against crimes perpetrated under the guise of politics, in the name of a homeland where a handful of armed people, with the shameful support of one sector of society, decides who belongs to that homeland and who should either leave it or die” (p. 504). What is Xabier’s reaction to hearing this writer?
21. What is it about Aranxta, her personality and her situation that she is able to bring her family members around to attempt to reunite with Bittori? How is she the voice of reason in the novel without being able to talk?
22. Aranxta says to her brother Jose Marie that they are both in prison, “You’re there because of what you did. What did I do to deserve this?” (p. 572). Explain what is happening in this scene. How is this scene and these two characters pivotal to the novel?
23. How do the three siblings, Aranxta and her two brothers Jose Marie and Gorka, represent three ways of being and reacting to the ETA armed struggle?
24. How does Gorka’s wedding to Ramuntxo cause Miren to open up a little? Why is Arantxa “a silent fountain of joy” (p. 542) at the wedding reception?
25. Aramburu also gives us Joxe Marie’s story, his motives, dreams and struggles. We learn that the police and the state are brutal to the prisoners and are not innocent in the struggle either. “So many things happen. No one outside the prison finds out about them” (p. 561). Do these descriptions make you empathize with Joxe Marie and the terrorists? Do you understand the conflict more hearing all sides?
26. What do you think of the ending of Homeland? Will things change in the village and with these two families?
