In the Beginning Was the Sea

A couple's search for a rural paradise on the Caribbean coast takes a sinister turn in this darkly ironic modern classic.

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.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Frank Wynne

Tomás González was born in 1950 in Medellín, Colombia. He studied Philosophy before becoming a barman in a Bogotá nightclub, whose owner published In the Beginning Was the Sea, his first novel, in 1983. González has lived in Miami and New York, where he wrote much of his work while making a living as a translator. After twenty years in the US, he returned to Colombia, where he now lives. His books have been translated into six languages. His novels Fog at Noon, Difficult Light and The Storm have also been published in English.

Frank Wynne is an Irish literary translator, writer and editor. He has translated numerous French and Hispanic authors including Michel Houellebecq, Patrick Modiano, Javier Cercas and Virginie Despentes. Over a career spanning more than twenty-five years, his translations have won many awards, including the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the Scott Moncrieff Prize and the Premio Valle Inclán twice. Most recently, his translation of The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers Guild by Mathias Énard won the 2024 French-American Prize.

'Smoothly intriguing narrative, with touches of sinister, Patricia Highsmith-like menace' Irish Times

'A taut, uncompromising study of the faultlines in all of us' J.G. Vásquez, Guardian

'A writerly coup de grâce: short and swift, with sharp imagery, menace and sensuality nestling together in its luxuriant Caribbean setting'Times