
In the Beginning Was the Sea
The author of the hit The Difficult Light returns with a story of love and heartbreak, the chronicle of a paradise that turns into hell.
J. and Elena decide to put an end to the bohemian and disordered life they lead in the city and start anew in a remote corner on the coast: a small house nestled between the shoreline and the jungle, an hour’s walk from the nearest village. However, the promise of a peaceful existence in this idyllic setting soon begins to crumble. As the brutal climate, growing debts, and even the sea itself seem to conspire to drive them away, the relationship between Elena and J. becomes more and more tempestuous, and the paradise they thought they had found starts to resemble hell.
Recognized as one of the great works in Spanish of our time, Tomás González’s first novel, inspired by real events, tells a universal story: the reckless disregard of one’s own limits, which inevitably ends in tragedy. Written in vivid and immersive language and with a narrative that meticulously constructs the collapse of a dream from the first page, reading In the Beginning Was the Sea reminds us that the belief that we are masters of our destiny is but a vain illusion.
"A story that builds its unique intrigue with subtlety, with a touch of sinister threat in the manner of Patricia Highsmith." - Eileen Battersby, The Irish Times
"The expression ‘tour de force’ could have been coined for this bold novel... The vivid descriptions of a glorious and terrible nature make the atmosphere of this novel extraordinarily evocative."- Kirkus
Rights sold to:
Brazil (Bertrand); The Netherlands (Meridiaan Uitgevers); English World (Pushkin Press); Germany (Fischer); Turkey (Nora Kitap); Czech Rep. (Dybbuk)