What We Tried to Bury Grows Here

“A fiery, visceral tale of the Spanish Civil War.”
—The New York Times

“Moving… individual characters flare vividly .. what persists throughout is the place and its people.”
—Julian Girdham, The Irish Times

“Julian Zabalbeascoa writes about the Spanish Civil War from a perspective both distant and close to the drama: distant enough to offer perspective; close enough to offer depth. What We Tried to Bury Grows Here is a work of precise and poetic writing.”
—Bernardo Atxaga

“Zabalbeascoa’s characters cannot foresee the tragic end to the war, but readers do, and this chilling knowledge adds to the tension in this compelling and hauntingly prescient novel.”
—Wendy J. Fox, Electric Literature

“Zabalbeascoa brings together family lore and mountains of research to paint a kaleidoscopic portrait of the Spanish Civil War, particularly its impact on the people of Spain’s Basque region.”
—Kate Tuttle, The Boston Globe

“What We Tried to Bury Grows Here implores us to look back to history to not fall into passivity but instead take note of the perils of today. Zabalbeascoa structures his novel as a series of first-person vignettes, giving rise to a chorus of characters. It’s an imaginative and impressive feat of literary ventriloquism to hear from Basque soldiers. This structure allows Zabalbeascoa to comment on the collective nature of war while showing how it is an intensely personal undertaking. Through these characters, we are allowed to see slices of their war and how it builds to something more encompassing.”
—Brock Kingsley, Chicago Review of Books

“A stunning first novel, ambitious, intensely true, certain to be read for a long time. Zabalbeascoa is a phenomenon.”
—Philipp Meyer, author of The Son and American Rust

“Julian Zabalbeascoa is ferociously brilliant at rendering both the epic sweep of history—Franco’s rise to power, the Spanish Civil War—and the particular contours of daily life. The wineskins soldiers stash under their hospital mattresses. A bit of cake dipped in marmalade. The “metallic whistle” of a rifle shell. What We Tried to Bury Grows Here is a stunningly powerful novel about the individual acts of courage and violence that have shaped history as we know it. A virtuosic and unforgettable debut.”
—Laura van den Berg, author of State of Paradise

A dual citizen of Spain and the US, Julian Zabalbeascoa was born and raised in California’s Central Valley. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing in Madrid from the University of New Orleans and taught at various institutions throughout California before moving to Boston, where he now teaches in the Honors College at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He leads annual study abroad programs to Donostia-San Sebastian, Havana, Madrid, Paris, and Seville.

His stories have appeared in American Short Fiction, Boulevard, The Common, Electric Literature, The Gettysburg Review, Glimmer Train, One Story, and Ploughshares. His interviews and reviews have been published in The Believer, Electric Literature, The Millions, and Salamander.

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