Burning Bones

Expertly translated into English by Amaia Gabantxo—arguably the most prestigious contemporary Basque to English translator—Hezurren Erretura [Burning Bones] is a companion piece to Miren Agur Meabe’s A Glass Eye, a collection of short stories that complement the universe of Meabe’s novel about absence as an engine for creation, about what we make out of the things we lose—her eye, in the author’s case, or love, or the innocence of youth. Burning Bones takes us through the universe of the character at the heart of A Glass Eye, a fictional version of Meabe: her childhood, teenage years, and adulthood, the experiences that marked her. Whereas A Glass Eye is a novel, Burning Bones is a collection of brief narratives. This two pieces are complemented by a third one that Miren Agur Meabe published in 2020 to complete what she considers a triptych, a poetry collection called Nola Gorde Errautsa Kolkoan [Holding Ashes in the Heart]. In this triptych, the author experiments with the possibilities of form and genre, inviting readers into an imperfect woman’s journey into artisthood.

Miren Agur Meabe writes literature for children, and also for adults. In the course of her career she has received the Critics’ Prize twice, for her poetry collections and the Euskadi Prize for YA literature on three occasions. Her novel Kristalezko begi bat (A Glass Eye, Parthian 2018) and the short story collection Hezurren erratura (Burning Bones, Parthian 2021) have been warmly received by readers and critics alike. A Glass Eye has been translated into several languages and received multiple awards.