Seven Houses in France: "clean and candid prose that sharpens the absurdity and brutality of the historical moment"

As we’ve been reporting here over the past months, Seven Houses in France, the latest novel by Bernardo Atxaga, has received many positive reviews since it was published last summer, and it was named one of the best novels of 2012.

Another positive review comes to us from the United States, this time from the literary website Fiction Advocate, which writes about publishing and posts book reviews. Last Tuesday they published a review of Seven Houses in France, a novel set in the Belgian Congo at the beginning of the 20th century.

Here are some highlights from the review

"In clean, candid prose that sharpens the absurdity and brutality of the historical moment, Atxaga tells the story of three Belgian officers and one African servant whose sedentary lifestyles are interrupted by the arrival of a new comrade. But it’s less Heart of Darkness and more Beetle Bailey."

"Atxaga's previous novels have been more pro-Basque and magical realist. I was expecting the same with Seven Houses in France—a partisan allegory about the Basque people. But Atxaga has gone bigger, framing his issues on a global and historical scale. My edition of the book was written in Euskara, translated into Spanish, and then translated into English; the characters speak French and a few Bantu words. The Force Publique flag, with its blue field and yellow star—like the captain's eyes and Chrysostome's blue ribbon and gold chain—has become, today, the flag of the European Union. There is plenty that Atxaga does not say in this coiled snake of a novel. But he notes the sound of monkeys screeching in the jungle like an aggrieved Greek chorus".

The full review can be read at Fiction Advocate.