Breaking Down The Doors To The Past In 'The Dinner Guest'
In her new autofictional novel, Spanish writer Gabriela Ybarra turns past tragedy — the murder of her grandfather by Basque separatists — into a seamless blend of art, politics and private life.
The Spanish writer Gabriela Ybarra comes from a politically elite family. In the 1970s, her family was one of about a dozen that occupied every position of power in Vizcaya, a province in the Basque region of Spain. This made them targets for the left-wing Basque separatist group ETA, which , six years before she was born. That kidnapping serves as the point of departure for her debut novel, , masterfully translated by Natasha Wimmer. In elegant, flat prose, Ybarra links her grandfather's
