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Atxaga publishes the fourth book chronicling the adventures of Shola the dog

2011-05-30  ¦  Publications

Atxaga publishes "Xola eta Ameriketako izeba" (Shola and the Aunt from America), the fourth book chronicling the adventures of Shola the dog.

Atxaga publishes the fourth book chronicling the adventures of Shola the dog

Bernardo Atxaga has just published a fourth volume of Shola's adventures, Shola and the Aunt from America ("Xola eta Ameriketako izeba" in Basque), a educational and realistic tale about prejudice that is illustrated by Mikel Valverde, who also illustrated the three previous books in the collection.

Earlier this month in San Sebastian, writer Bernardo Atxaga presented his new children's book Shola and the Aunt from America, written in Basque and published by Erein.

In this volume, Atxaga teaches how prejudice affects us, specifically in the case of women. Shola herself is prejudiced toward her aunt from America, but later learns to reject the stereotypes she applies to her aunt. By the end of the story, the canine protagonist realizes that she is most chauvinist of them all.

This is the fourth story in the series about Shola the dog; the previous three are Shola and the Lions (1996), Shola and the Wild Boars (1996) and Shola and Angelino (2004).

Atxaga wrote Shola and the Aunt from America eight years ago, but upon finishing it he realized that the Shola that appeared in the story "wasn't the same Shola" as in the first two tales. So instead of publishing it he just saved it on his computer. Then on a trip to the United States, Atxaga saw a cowboy in a bar and thought that if he brought this element into the original story, it would hold it together "and that's what happened."

More information is available in the following reviews (in Basque and Spanish):