STEPHEN BURGEN

Sinopsis: Tras siglos de guerras, los europeos intentamos llevarnos bien, pero no dejamos de pisarnos los pies. Si pisamos el pie de un inglés, éste exclamará Bloody hell! (¡maldito infierno!), un italiano, cazzo!(¡polla!). Y un español, ¡hostia! Y mientr

When New Yorker Alex Nadal inherits his aunts farm near Barcelona he is more than intrigued. First, because his aunt appears to have died twice - once at the end of the Spanish Civil War and again sixty years later - and secondly because he is curious about his Catalan roots, about which his father has always maintained a stony silence.But his arrival on Spanish soil is not a prodigals return; indeed he is made to feel very unwelcome. He asks too many questions which are met with either hostility or silence, until Alex begins to understand that in this sun-baked and ancient land the past is not history but merely unfinished business. And in the end its a simple ultimatum: finish it or it will finish him.

Canadian-born journalist Burgen, who lives in Barcelona, where he reports for the Times of London, does a fine job paying homage to Catalonia in his first novel, a thriller with roots in the Spanish Civil War. Unfortunately, the vibrant Spanish setting and sharp historical background can''t save an overly familiar and predictable plot. In 1938, Ignasi Nadal left Spain believing he had betrayed three rebels who were executed by the fascists. Years later, worn down by guilt, he committed suicide. Then his sister, Anna, who everyone believed had been killed in the war, dies in Spain, leaving the family farm to Ignasi''s son, Alex, the story''s hero. Was his father a traitor? Why did he tell his family that his sister was dead? When Alex goes to Spain to sort out the truth, he finds his small inheritance, a 25-acre farm south of Barcelona, at the center of a conspiracy. Why does a corporation want his land badly enough to threaten his life? What really happened during the war that has some prominent people ready to kill to keep secret? The answers aren''t hard to guess. The author does have a knack for turning a phrase and is especially good at describing pretty girls: "Her best features: her curved-for-kissing lips and her black, almost Arabic eyes. Dark elliptical mirrors: when you looked in all you saw was yourself." And who can resist a sentence like "Her smiles were protective, they were like Wonder Woman''s bangles: harmful things bounced off them"? One hopes Burgen will come up with a plot worthy of his descriptive powers next time.