Description

When J. and Elena swap the parties and culture of the city for a simpler life on Colombia’s remote Caribbean coast, they expect to find an Eden to call their own. But in amongst the mango groves they discover decaying houses, diseased animals, suffocating heat and locals from another world. Faced with growing debt, how will they survive in this new environment when they themselves remain unchanged? And, as their relationship breaks down – and the horror unfolds – who can they count on if not each other?

Based on a true story, In the Beginning Was the Sea is a menacing, ironic tale of human weakness, the terrifying power of nature, and what happens when our dreams meet their fateful reality.

Publisher Review

A taut, uncompromising study of the faultlines in all of us — J.G. Vasquez * Guardian * A writerly coup de grace: short and swift, with sharp imagery, menace and sensuality nestling together in its luxuriant Caribbean setting * Financial Times * Smoothly intriguing narrative, with its touches of sinister, Patricia Highsmith-like menace * Irish Times * The lauded Colombian novelist lives up to the hype … Extraordinarily evocative * Independent * Extremely potent: sly, voyeuristic, ominously poetic … A clever riff on the Rousseaus (both Henri and Jean-Jacques), a cautionary tale about choosing to defy the laws of nature and man, and ultimately discovering that idealism can’t replace them — Jessica Loudis * TLS * Haunting * Metro * A novel that lingers * Telegraph * Superb — Eileen Battersby * Irish Times (Books of the Year) * Terse but poetic… J’s escape is by turns beautiful, hubristic and tragic. Gonzalez writes gloriously about nature for good measure * Independent (Books of the Year) * [T]he novel leaves its mark… the arresting prose and complex characters shine. * Kirkus Reviews * Quietly unsettling, elegantly written * Sunday Express * A brief, pungent, powerful and unusual tale * Monocle * Tomas Gonzalez has the potential to become a classic of Latin American literature… a very pure writer * Elfriede Jelinek, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature * Skilfully planted with narrative bombs… you can hear it ticking * Intelligent Life * Through the sparse language and the handpicked metaphors, the exotic island that J. and Elena inhabit and the realities of mainland South America come to life… lean and severe but still ultimately artistic * Bookbag * A fascinatingly dark character study. It is an unflinching, and pitch perfect trip into the dark heart of Colombia and hippy culture in general. It is above all a powerful debut * Upcoming4Me * Gonzalez’s sharp and succinct delivery, combined with his crisp and startling imagery, leaves an impression upon a reader that takes time to fade * Litro * If Garcia Marquez is Wagner, Tomas Gonzalez is Bob Dylan * Arcadia magazine, Colombia * A fascinating sociological experiment…Tomas Gonzalez writes with descriptive beauty and subtle irony * The Literateur * Tomas Gonzalez is among the brilliant Colombian writers emerging from the shadow of Gabriel Garcia Marquez — Maya Jaggi * Pen Atlas * Colombian novelist Gonzalez tells a common story with uncommon economy * Booklist * Gonzalez’s work has been translated into six languages, but this is his first book to appear in English, an auspicious beginning * Booklist * For readers following J’s fantasies and hopes […], it is impossible not to think of Kafka’s K * Booklist * Devastatingly evocative… a chilling, brilliantly plotted tale * Typographical Era * A truly captivating trouble-in-paradise novel… If this is a measure of what [Gonzalez] is capable of, with luck there will be many more * Star Tribune * The finca’s surroundings, richly and sensuously rendered by Gonzalez and Spanish-language translator Frank Wynne, burst with images of fecundity… For the English-speaking world, this novel is merely a taste of what is to come * Chicago Tribune * Gonzalez poetically and comically captures the inevitable destruction of those who live in a world of fantasy and hubris, depicting beauty and despair by turns * Publishers Weekly * Touching… Gonzalez has established himself as one of Colombia’s leading writers * RTE * Gonzalez’s story of failed bohemian idealism has new power in its conscious merging of fiction and confessional… After the studious buildup of suspense and endangerment […], Gonzalez captures the ultimate smallness of the murder, the bathos of a handgun being fired, the stillness that immediately follows * Los Angeles Review of Books * The lyrical, haunting story has the feel of a fable – a young man and his beautiful wide abandon their hectic, intellectual, night-clubbing life in the city to buy a farm on an undeveloped stretch of coast – while the spare, disquieting prose suggests the start of an art-house horror film. * Words Without Borders *