el camino de los difuntos

francois sureau

48 pages. Written in April and May, 2012 in Baiona by a lawyer who worked at the Paris Refugees’ Commission for many years. He dealt with many refugees’ cases, including that of ETA member Javier Ibarrategui. Although Ibarrategui lived in France and had no connections with the armed band, the refugees’ commission withdrew his permission to live in France. For the last 30 years Sureau hasn’t been able to forget what happened back then. Reading about our “con ict” through the eyes of somebody not involved is an interesting exercise.

beti oporretan

harkaitz cano

Light, saltpetre, freshness, people, spritz... the topics of conversation when we remember holidays. That’s why we think Cano’s collection of short stories, in their clean, elegant prose, is unbeatable. And then again, if we think the party’s guaranteed just because we’re always on holiday, we’ve really got it sorted. In the shadow and with the pretext of parties, leisure time and carelessness, we’re easily dragged along by the things that happen. So, that’s like reality. Read this book with a glass of vermouth in your hand, like on holiday. Believe it’s possible to always be on holiday. But don’t forget to cover your back.

hondamendia

xabier montoia

The era doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you set it in Adam and Eve’s time, or in our period or in the future. It makes no difference. Disaster is what you smell in all the stories in Montoia’s latest book. From the slightest, least visible disasters to the most obvious ones. The title is just right. We could say that the descriptions of them and the ideas are very Montoia, you can sense him in all of them, it’s always just about to go wrong.

ituskizuna

itu banda

Ituskizuna, which Itu banda brought out last October, is a large-format fold- out. Poetry, narrative, theatre, illustration. All marked by irony and agitprop. So, of course, we’re not going to talk about the contents. Because each of us has to find out about these things by him/herself. Or each of us should gift artefacts like this. Don’t steal things like this. Such things are so rare here that we should protect and support them.