Ultrasounds: Basque Women Writers on Motherhood

Edited by Gema Lasarte The mother has always been a particularly potent symbol for the Basques. Along with the home, she has been seen as a repository of cultural values and a bulwark for traditional ways of life. In Ultrasounds: Basque Women Writers on Motherhood, a wide ranging collection of contemporary women short story writers take on the subject of motherhood from a variety of perspectives, unique voices, and styles. The collection opens with Aurelia Arkotxa's micro-stories, which explore various aspects of motherhood in condensed fragments or "sparks." In "The Shopping Cart," Uxue Apaolaza larrea challenges the notion of a mother as the family's foundation; Miren Agur Meabe uses myth and fable to illuminate the role of the woman as creator of language in her stories about Doltza; Irati Elorrieta explores multicultural relationships and motherhood in "Torn Landscapes," and Karmele Jaio Eiguren and Katixa Agirre Miguélez explore different types of motherhood altogether in "Ultraso