Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Guernica: A Novel by Dave Boling

The destruction of Guernica by Nazi bombers is immortalized in what is probably Pablo Picasso's best known painting: the mural titled Guernica. Now the painting is probably better known than the town, which lies at the heart of the Basque region of Spain.

Boling made me feel like part of the family of Guernica. The town is populated by wonderful and totally believeable characters. People that the reader knows and cares about so that we suffer through assaults on their way of life beginning with the Spanish Civil war and on through the devastating bombing raid with them. Their language is forbidden, their dance is forbidden, and finally their lives are taken from them.

The story follows two families, the Ansoteguis and the Navarros through generations of love, loss, and hard work. And it follows those who survive the bombing as they grieve and rebuilt life from the fragments that are left to them.

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