“All That Followed” by Gabriel Urza – The Terror of the Unexpected

The search for truth is an objective humanity has always been aiming for, and though there are certainly those who recognize ignorance as bliss, most people want to see reality in all of its beauty and horror... often not knowing what they are asking to see until it's too late.

Regardless, it seems we always have and will continue to strive for truth and justice, no matter what the cost, as do the people of Muriga, a quiet Spanish town, in Gabriel Urza's novel, All That Followed.

The story takes place in the small town, where five years ago a young politician had been murdered, with the culprit now sitting behind bars. As the town has returned to its normal routines and frequencies, another tragedy strikes: the Atocha train bombings.

Feeling rocked and reeling, the people of Muriga demand their own justice and retribution: many doubt that the lone gunman behind bars is the sole person to blame for the politician's assassination.

The story which follows follows three of the townspeople in particular: the teenage radical jailed for the crime, the politician's beautiful widow, and an old American teacher who seeks in Muriga a blank slate to hide his trobuled past behind him.

All three together hold the key to understanding what happened on that fateful day and why... it is their time to come face-to-face with the truth and confront it in all of its ugliness.

The first thing that strikes the reader is generally the amount of historical detail Urza includes in his story. He makes it a point to show the Spains of different times with the help of various characters from different time periods, taking us from the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s to the separatist movement and small private wars families end up having with each other.

All of Urza's details and magnificent descriptions help to create a vivid, lively and believable environment, the kind you can picture yourself in just by closing your eyes.

The book is written in short chapters, alternating between the three different viewpoints, creating a Rashomon-like effect, amplifying the power and depth of the mystery. They go along pretty quickly and you'll probably find yourself finished with the book much faster than you expected.

The narration is sublime and straight to the point, often raising important points along the way about the human and personal costs of political devotion and unfaithfulness, about how innocent dissidence can quickly spiral out of control into brutality and violence.

All things taken into consideration, All That Followed is an extremely powerful novel that offers a compelling mystery as much as it does food for thought. Everything from the environments, to the characters, the story and the multiple layers of complexity come together to form a rather engaging and emotionally-charged book, one I would definitely recommend to those who like murder mysteries mixed in with politics and social commentary.

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Gabriel Urza Personal site Gabriel Urza is an American writer, whose family comes from Spain (where he lives now), who received his MFA from the Ohio State University. His short stories and essays have been published in Riverteeth, The Kenyon Review, Slate, Hobart and others, with his first novel, All That Followed, being a critical success.