The Dinner Guest

In 1977, Gabriela Ybarra's grandfather, a wealthy Spanish industrialist and former mayor of Bilbao, was kidnapped by members of the Basque separatist group ETA. Over a summer of dread, his children fielded ransom letters and fended off a frenzied press until police found his body. In 2016, Ybarra's mother was diagnosed with cancer, beginning a new cycle of death in the family and pushing her reopen the story of her grandfather's murder. In this slim book, Ybarra blends memory and documentary, reporting and fiction to tell the story of the violence that has haunted her family. Pushing autofiction into new territory, she spins their tragedy into an almost mystical meditation on violence and redemption.