A review by siria
By Night the Mountain Burns by Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

A beautiful, unsettling novel told through the eyes of a child growing up on a small island off the coast of West Africa. Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel's story curves back on itself, spirals around its events and themes in great ellipses; each time you (re)approach the series of tragic events which overtakes the island community, you understand a little better what's been going on. (Perhaps a very little. Ávila Laurel's unnamed narrator withholds information the whole way through the book, and tells us so, and in a way that tells me he wants the non-Equatoguinean reader to pick up on it.) Full of vivid imagery that will linger with me, even if the ending didn't quite satisfy.