My grandma says she doesn’t read  because she gets too caught up in the stories and can’t put the book down, leading to sleepless nights. She could not read this book — it’s too captivating.

Aramburu moves seamlessly between characters and time periods, making a perfectly paced book. The characters are SO well crafted and the family dynamics SO realistic which creates a mix of genuinely funny dialogues as well as relatable characters.

The downsides for me were 1) the ending felt rushed 2) a lot of clichés 3) it feels like Aramburu has a checklist of ‘woke’ topics to mention without necessarily going into much depth about them.

Overall, though, I loved this. 

Remarkable close, open eyed, unflinching and intimate look at the ramifications of the Basque separatist movement in Spain on two families.