ALL THAT FOLLOWED

ALL THAT FOLLOWED is a powerful, multifaceted story about a nefarious kind of violence that can take hold when we least expect. Urgent, elegant, and gorgeously atmospheric, Urza's debut confronts the unreliable nature of the stories we tell ourselves; a book for our age that marks the arrival of a brilliant new writer to watch.

It's 2004 in Muriga, a quiet town in Spain's northern Basque country, a place with more secrets than inhabitants. Years have passed since the kidnapping and murder of a young local politician--a family man and father--and the town's sedate rhythms have almost returned to normal. But in the aftermath of the recent Atocha train bombings in Madrid, an act of terrorism that rocked a nation and a world, the townspeople want answers to the sins of Muriga's past: Everyone knows who pulled the trigger five years ago, but is the man now behind bars the only one to blame? ALL THAT FOLLOWED peels away the layers of a crime complicated by history, love, betrayal, and nostalgia. The memories of three townspeople in particular--the councilman's beautiful young widow, the teenage radical now in jail for firing the shot, and an aging American teacher hiding a traumatic past of his own--could hold the key to what really happened. It's finally time to know the truth. Gabriel Urza received his MFA from the Ohio State University. His family is from the Basque region of Spain and he has spent several years there, including four months as a Kellogg Fellow during which he completed research on the ETA, the terrorist group at the center of the novel. Urza's short fiction and essays have been published in Riverteeth, Hobart, Erlea (Spain), The Kenyon Review, West Branch (forthcoming), and other publications. He also has a degree in law, and currently works as a public defender in Reno, Nevada.