  A521 is an interacting galaxy cluster located at z=0.247, hosting a low
frequency radio halo connected to an eastern radio relic. Previous Chandra
observations hinted at the presence of an X-ray brightness edge at the position
of the relic, which may be a shock front. We analyze a deep observation of A521
recently performed with XMM-Newton in order to probe the cluster structure up
to the outermost regions covered by the radio emission. The cluster atmosphere
exhibits various brightness and temperature anisotropies. In particular, two
cluster cores appear to be separated by two cold fronts. We find two shock
fronts, one that was suggested by Chandra and that is propagating to the east,
and another to the southwestern cluster outskirt. The two main interacting
clusters appear to be separated by a shock heated region, which exhibits a
spatial correlation with the radio halo. The outer edge of the radio relic
coincides spatially with a shock front, suggesting this shock is responsible
for the generation of cosmic ray electrons in the relic. The propagation
direction and Mach number of the shock front derived from the gas density jump,
M = 2.4 +/- 0.2, are consistent with expectations from the radio spectral
index, under the assumption of Fermi I acceleration mechanism.
