LIZARRALDE, Pello

(1956 - )

"I was born in Zumarraga in 1956. Most of the people there had just recently abandoned their scythes and hoes. Our father became a truck driver. I've spent many hours on the highway and on trains. I've had some crazy dreams, but never that I would be a "professional writer."

The magazines Zeruko Argia and Argia gave me the opportunity to write and learn, and the magazine Ustela gave me the opportunity to publish. I have since published six books - Sargori (Heat Wave) in 1994 and Un ange passe: Isilaldietan (An Angel Passes: In Moments of Silence) in 1998 - and I don't know what to say about what I've written. My life would be lessened if I were forced to give up writing, but it would be unbearable if I had to give up reading.

I have come across some very kind people among Basque writers and lovers of literature, but I have few kindred spirits among them.

When I hear that I'm a writer, it embarrasses me less than it used to. I want to continue writing, but I'm not in any hurry."

(Lizarralde, P., 2004, "Biography", in Olaziregi, M.J. (compiler), An Anthology of Basque Short Stories, Center for Basque Studies, Reno).


"His is a minimalist prose that plays with silence, that knows how to create a truly strange atmosphere. And in the recently published novel Larrepetit (2002) we find the characters fleeing in endless comings and goings. The reader will soon note that few things "happen" in Lizarralde's stories and that he inevitably draws the attention of the narrator to gestures, smells, colors and ordinary motions of almost epiphanic meaning. Making use of descriptions of great lyrical force, raising the objectives of different methods of storytelling to new pinnacles, the atmosphere, the internal life is dominant in Lizarralde's narrative. The same talent for creating moods that he showed in his book Sargori (1994, Sultry Weather) is present in this work as well."

(Olaziregi, M.J., 2004, "Foreword", in, An Anthology of Basque Short Stories, Center for Basque Studies, Reno).


Narrative-writing in the 1980s: realism and fantasy

The narrative of Juan Luis Zabala (Zigarrokin ziztrin baten azken keak, 1985; Kaka esplikatzen, 1989) and of Pello Lizarralde (E pericoloso sporgersi, 1984; Sargori, 1984; Hatza mapa gainean, 1988) was to be different. The two works were to be within the realms of modernity, but alongside the first writer's inward-looking, reflective style, Lizarralde's sophisticated, objective prose stood out. During the same period Aingeru Epaltza was to publish his Sasiak ere begiak baditin set during the First Carlist War (1833-39).

(Euskal Idazleen Elkartea- Basque Writers' Association: "A Brief History of Basque Literature" in EIE).


"Fiction has held sway in recent decades. The wealth of literary reviews in the 1980s contributed to the development of the short story given its modest length. The works of J. Sarrionandia (Narrazioak, 1983) and of Atxaga, in particular the latter's excellent Obabakoak (1988), lead us into worlds of fantasy and imagination hitherto unknown in literary Basque. This tendency in the writing of modern short stories was furthered in the prose of Inazio Mujika Iraola in Azukrea belazeetan (Sugar in the Meadows) (1987) and by the realism of X. Montoia. Although collections of short stories have recently appeared, books by Pello Lizarralde, Iban Zaldua and Karlos Linazasoro for example, the end of the century, as is the case in Spanish fiction, sees the novel take the lion's share.

(Olaziregi, M.J., "The Awakening of Basque Literature", in Transcript 5).


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Š Photo: Zaldi Ero