"The city of the discreet" by Pío Baroja Don Pío Baroja y Nessi was born in San Sebastián, a beautiful watering place on the northern coast of Guipúzcoa, Spain There, wandering among the foothills of the Pyrenees, listening to the talk of the hardy Basque peasants, playing on the beautiful crescent of the playa, sailing about the pretty land-locked harbour, he spent his childhood. In those early days he became thoroughly conversant with the Basque tongue which inspired this book.