Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel

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.… (más)

> Par Le Figaroscope : Sur le mont Gourougou de Juan Tomas Avila Laurel
A la frontière entre le Maroc et l'enclave espagnole de Melilla s'élève le mont Gourougou, où sont réfugiés des centaines de migrants d'Afrique noire attendant de pouvoir poser le pied en Europe. De cette communauté improvisée, on découvre l'organisation du quotidien, les histoires échangées pour tromper l'ennui, les vices, les jeux, mais aussi la lutte pour échapper aux autorités. Jusqu'à l'explosion de ce fragile équilibre, quand certains commerces entre hommes et femmes, tenus secrets jusque-là, sont révélés au grand jour...
Entre conte et récit de survie, Sur le mont Gourougou est un texte puissant et sans pathos, qui évoque l'immigration africaine en Europe en donnant la parole aux migrants eux-mêmes.… (más)

This is a difficult book - not to read - the translation and the story flowed easily for all the desolate power of its fiction but to attempt to assimilate - there are more questions than answers here and I've lost countless hrs since reading this in an attempt to learn more of Annobón / pagalu.

This story took me right on to reading human rights reports and country histories, to trying to piece them together w my own knowledge of today into a sort of reader's next step after.

- the author, with the voice of a child, the distance of adulthood and new freedoms evokes a powerful need to know… (más)