FICTION
Jan Reid
TCU Press
Hardcover, 320 pages, 978-0-87565-428-7 (ebook also available); $32.50
June 2017
Reviewed by Si Dunn
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, thousands of Basques left their economically and politically troubled homeland along the border between Spain and France. Many of them resettled thousands of miles away, in parts of South America, Central America, Mexico, Cuba, and the United States, including along the Texas-Mexico border.
Austin writer Jan Reid’s intriguing new novel, Sins of the Younger Sons, takes readers back to the mountainous Basque country in the mid-1990s, through the eyes and actions of Luken “Luke” Burgoa. Luke is a Texan raised as a Basque inside the fences of his family’s Texas ranch, yet often dismissed as “just another South Texas Mexican” by suspicious neighbors.
Luke speaks the Basque Navarrese dialect almost fluently, and he knows Basque customs. Now, he is a former U.S. Marine and former boxer, as well. And this background has landed him a tough assignment with a shadowy American intelligence agency that he can refer to only as “the Outfit.”
Working alone in Basque country, Luke somehow must make friends with a dangerous group of separatists, members of the feared ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna), “Basque Homeland and Freedom.” The ETA has been fighting Spanish authorities since 1959. They have carried out assassinations, bombings, kidnappings and other violent events, trying to win Basque independence. In Reid’s novel (historical fiction based partially on facts), Luke’s ultimate mission is to bring down the ETA’s military commander, Peru Madariaga, who controls the group’s weapons and money.
The Texan takes to the Basque mountains with a small team of pack mules and tries to pass himself off as a souvenir dealer and arms smuggler who can deliver Soviet-made sniper rifles to buyers.
But Peru Madariaga soon sees through Luke’s disguise and realizes he is an American agent. Rather than immediately kill the Texan, the ETA military commander demands that Luke get him some bigger, more powerful Russian weapons that can be used to attack the heart of Spain’s political structure.
Luke knows the Outfit will never send him the weapons, nor send anyone to help him. So, he must stall for time, figure a way to take out Peru Madariaga, and also escape from the rest of the ETA.
In Reid’s well-written thriller, even more complications arise for Luke, including Peru Madariaga’s wife, Ysolinda. She is unhappy with her husband and tired of living constantly on the run. Soon she is attracted to the Texan, pushing him deeper into danger.
One of the book’s other strengths is its vivid descriptions of the Basque countryside and the roots of the region’s conflicts with Spain.
Many readers are aware of Jan Reid’s nonfiction works focusing on Texas music, Texas politics, and his near-fatal experiences in Mexico, plus earlier novels, including Comanche Sundown. Putting a Texas Basque ex-Marine into the middle of Spain’s bitter Basque conflict marks a surprising and refreshing new direction for his fiction.
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