Patria

"Patria" means fatherland, homeland. But what is home? The two women and their family at the center of Fernando Aramburu's critically acclaimed novel, which has won the highest Spanish literary awards, see their homeland through different eyes. Bittori sits by the grave of her husband Txato, who was shot by terrorists over twenty years ago. She tells him that she has decided to return to the house where they lived. She wants to find out what really happened back then and live again among those who once silently watched as her family was ostracized. Bittori's return abruptly ends the supposed peace in the village. Especially her neighbor Miren, who was once her best friend and is now the mother of a son imprisoned as a terrorist, is alarmed. Bittori's worst fear is that Miren's son is somehow connected to her husband's death. The two women avoid each other, but eventually, the long-anticipated encounter becomes unavoidable. An international bestseller, a groundbreaking novel about guilt and forgiveness, friendship and love, that shows how terrorism attacks the inner core of a community and how long it takes for people to find their way back to each other.