What We Tried to Bury Grows Here -- Julian Zabalbeascoa, Paperback

A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist

A masterly crafted and haunting tale of survival, longing, and empathy, set during the Spanish Civil War, now in a new paperback edition.

"Julian Zabalbeascoa is the real deal, a major talent, and the story he's telling here is both riveting and terrifying." --Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Empire Falls

In late 1936, eighteen-year-old Isidro Elejalde leaves his Basque village in Northern Spain, spurred to join the fight to preserve his country's democracy from the insurrectionists by the rousing words of a political essayist. Months earlier, Spanish generals launched a military coup to overthrow Spain's newly elected left-wing government. They assumed the population would welcome the coup, but throughout the country people like Isidro remained loyal to the ideals of democracy, and the Spanish Civil War began in bloody earnest.

In Bilbao, Mariana raises her two young children while, with her writing, she decries the fascist-backed coup attempt and their German and Italian allies, imploring the world to support democracy. As the Nationalist forces assault the country, Mariana and Isidro's lives intersect fleetingly, yet in meaningful and lasting ways.

What We Tried to Bury Grows Here is a remarkable feat of research and imagination, as well as a transcendent literary accomplishment.

Author: Julian Zabalbeascoa
Publisher: Two Dollar Radio
Published: 02/10/2026
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9781953387264

About the Author
A dual citizen of Spain and the US, JULIAN ZABALBEASCOA was born and raised in California's Central Valley. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing in Madrid from the University of New Orleans and taught at various institutions throughout California before moving to Boston, where he now teaches in the Honors College at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, leading annual study abroad programs to Donostia-San Sebastian, Havana, Madrid, Paris, and Seville. Among other journals, his stories have appeared in American Short Fiction, Boulevard, The Common, Electric Literature, The Gettysburg Review, Glimmer Train, One Story, and Ploughshares. His interviews and reviews have been published in The Believer, Electric Literature, The Millions, and Salamander.