Table of Contents

Introduction: The Island and the World

Part One THE SURVIVAL OF EUSKAL HERRIA

The Basque Cake
1: The Basque Myth
2: The Basque Problem
3: The Basque Whale
4: The Basque Saint
5: The Basque Billy Goat
6: The Wealth of Non-Nations

Part Two THE DAWN OF EUSKADI

The Basque Onomatopoeia
7. The Basque Beret
8: The Basque Ear
9: Gernika
10: The Potato Time
11: Speaking Christian
12: Eventually Night Falls

Part Three EUSKADI ASKATUTA

Slippery Maketos
13: The Great Opportunity
14: Checks and Balances
15: Surviving Democracy
16: The Nation

Postscript: The Death of a Basque Pig
The Basque Thank You
Bibliography
Index of Proper Nouns

MAPS
Basqueland's Seven Provinces
Basque Border Passes
Basque Coastline
Pilgrim Routes to Santiago
German-Occupied France
Operation Comet

About the Author

Mark Kurlansky was born in Hartford, Connecticut. After receiving a BA in Theater from Butler University in 1970—and refusing to serve in the military—Kurlansky worked in New York as a playwright, having a number of off-off Broadway productions, and as a playwright-in-residence at Brooklyn College. He has worked many other jobs, including as a commercial fisherman, a dock worker, a paralegal, a cook, and a pastry chef. In the mid-1970s he turned to journalism, and from 1976 to 1991 he worked as a foreign correspondent for The International Herald Tribune, The Chicago Tribune, The Miami Herald, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Based in Paris and then Mexico, he reported on Europe, West Africa, Southeast Asia, Central America, Latin America, and the Caribbean. His articles have appeared in a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Miami Herald, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, Time, The New York Times and many more.
He has had 35 books published including fiction, nonfiction, and children's books. His books include Havana, Cod, Salt, Paper, The Basque History of the World, 1968, The Big Oyster, among other titles. He has received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Bon Appetit’s Food Writer of the Year Award, the James Beard Award, and the Glenfiddich Award. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

"Entertaining and instructive, [Kurlansky's] approach is unorthodox, mixing history with anecdotes, poems with recipes." —The New York Times Book Review

"A delectable portrait of an uncanny, indomitable nation." —Newsday

"A lively, anecdotal, all-encompassing history of Basque ingenuity and achievement." —Atlantic Monthly

“Exciting, Illuminating, and thought provoking.” –The Boston Globe