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Home > Translation > The World Bookshelf > Books > By Night The Mountain Burns

By Night The Mountain Burns

By Night The Mountain Burns recounts the narrator’s childhood on a remote island off the West African coast, living with his mysterious grandfather, several mothers and no fathers. We learn of a dark chapter in the island’s history: a bush fire destroys the crops, then hundreds perish in a cholera outbreak. Superstition dominates: now the islanders must sacrifice their possessions to the enraged ocean god. What of their lives will they manage to save?

Whitmanesque in its lyrical evocation of the island, Ávila Laurel’s writing builds quietly, through the oral rhythms of traditional storytelling, into gripping drama worthy of an Achebe or a García Márquez.

Author

Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel

Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel

Books

By Night The Mountain Burns

The Gurugu Pledge

Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel was born in 1966 in Equatorial Guinea, Africa’s only Spanish-speaking country. His parents were from the remote Annobón Island, off the African coast. His books include Avión de Ricos and Ladrón De Cerdos (The Rich Man’s Aeroplane and The Pig Thief) and the short story collection Cuentos Crudos (Raw Tales). By Night The Mountain Burns (Arde El Monte De Noche) is based on his memories of growing up on Annobón.

Ávila Laurel has been a constant thorn in the side of his country’s long-standing dictatorial government. A nurse by profession, for many years he was one of the best known Equatorial Guinean writers not to have opted to live in exile. But, in 2011, after a week-long hunger strike in protest against Obiang’s regime, timed to coincide with the President of Spain’s visit to Equatorial Guinea, Ávila Laurel moved to Barcelona. He writes across all media as a blogger, essayist and novelist.

Translator

Jethro Soutar

Jethro Soutar

Books

Hotel Brasil

By Night The Mountain Burns

The Ultimate Tragedy

The Gurugu Pledge

Jethro Soutar is a translator of Spanish and Portuguese. He has translated crime fiction from Argentina (Needle in a Haystack by Ernesto Mallo, nominated for an International Dagger) and Brazil (Hotel Brasil by Frei Betto, winner of a PEN award) for Bitter Lemon Press. His translation of By Night The Mountain Burns by Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel was published by And Other Stories in November 2014. He also co-edited and co-translated The Football Crónicas for Ragpicker Press.

Published by

And Other Stories, 2014
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By Night The Mountain Burns recounts the narrator’s childhood on a remote island off the West African coast, living with his mysterious grandfather, several mothers and no fathers. We learn of a dark chapter in the island’s history: a bush fire destroys the crops, then hundreds perish in a cholera outbreak. Superstition dominates: now the islanders must sacrifice their possessions to the enraged ocean god. What of their lives will they manage to save?

Whitmanesque in its lyrical evocation of the island, Ávila Laurel’s writing builds quietly, through the oral rhythms of traditional storytelling, into gripping drama worthy of an Achebe or a García Márquez.

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