Just Finished Reading: Guernica by Dave Boling

Northern Spain 1935. On a drunken night out with friends in the small fishing village of Lekeitio, young Miguel Navarro attacks a member of the Civil Guard and has to flee for his life. He is sent to live with his uncle in Guernica where he learns a new trade and falls in love with the beautiful daughter of the town’s strong man. When he finally gets permission to marry her he cannot believe his luck. Meanwhile Miguel’s brother is hiding in France and becomes part of the local smuggling fraternity moving hard to find or expensive items over the porous boarder between the two countries. As the years pass and Spain slips into civil war times become hard and the local community begins to fracture. Then, on the fateful day of 26^th April 1937, their world is torn apart as German bombers of the Condor Legion use Guernica as an example of what airpower can achieve against undefended civilian populations. In the first example of its kind the town is bombed continually for several hours. Many lie dead or gravely injured and nothing is the same ever again.

By the time I reached the half-way mark in this amazing first novel I had already decided that it was the best book I had read this year. I honestly had fallen in love with a diverse and wonderful cast of characters. You hear people say that they couldn’t put a book down, that it gripped them so much that it was painful to turn their backs on the people they had developed such affection for. This is one of those books. After the awful attack in April ’37, described in just enough detail that I managed to keep my lunch down, things changed. With a jolt the focus was lost – or actually shifted – from Guernica and the families living there to the child refugees packed off to England for their safekeeping. For a long while I thought that the author had made a huge mistake taking his eye off the ball. I resented every page based in England that should have been based in the Basque Region. I mentally begged him to shift the focus back – and he did, sort of. The focus was now split between the refugees and the survivors, both coming to terms with their loss of home, friends and loved ones. In its own way it was as poignant as the first half of the book. In it we (the readers) suffered and triumphed as the main characters did – coping with lost limbs and ruined livelihoods. The smugglers now had a new cargo – people escaping the Occupation in France or airmen shot down over enemy territory. Everything had changed though much had stayed the same.

Boling had obviously done his research. The feel of this book was marvellous and I loved it as much as I loved the characters portrayed between its pages. Part of me felt that I really knew these people and part of me wanted to get on the next plane and go there. The kind of community in this novel is a rare beast these days though I’m confident that it still exists in places like Guernica. It was definitely a highlight of the year for me. I must warn you however that it might be a good idea to keep a handkerchief ready and if you’re in anyway emotionally inclined be prepared to have a good cry. Highly recommended.