About the book, from the publisher:
David Imaz, the protagonist in The Accordionist’s Son, was raised in the village of Obaba and is now living in exile on a ranch in California. Nearing fifty and in failing health, he decides to write the story of his youth, a narrative that takes the reader from 1936 to 1999. David’s pastoral childhood in Obaba is ruptured when, as a teenager forced to learn the accordion (like his father), he finds a letter implicating his father in fascist activities during the Spanish Civil War, including the execution of local republican sympathizers. This letter leads to other discoveries—like the fact that David’s uncle opposed his father’s activities—and Obaba’s history slowly cracks open to reveal to David the political tensions still raw beneath the surface, and the long shadow cast by the war. With The Accordionist’s Son, Atxaga delivers a politically charged and deeply personal novel —It is his finest work to date.