The Gurugu Pledge

Praise for By Night the Mountain Burns

"A delightfully candid, deceptively sober narrative voice."--Helen Oyeyemi, author of What is Not Yours is Not Yours

"A poignant novel by one of Equatorial Guinea's most celebrated authors . . . fascinating."--Publishers Weekly

"Survival, hope and despair wrestle in this surprising work by Equatorial Guinea's leading author."--Financial Times

On Mount Gurugu, overlooking the Spanish enclave of Melilla on the North African coast, desperate migrants gather before attempting to scale the city's walls and gain asylum on European soil. Inspired by firsthand accounts, Juan Tomas Avila Laurel has written an urgent novel, by turns funny and sad, bringing a distinctly African perspective to a major issue of our time.

Juan Tomas Avila Laurel was born in 1966 in Equatorial Guinea. The Gurugu Pledge is his second novel, and follows his 2015 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize-shortlisted debut By Night The Mountain Burns, which was based on his memories of growing up on the remote island of Annobon. He made headlines in 2011 by embarking on a hunger strike, in an anti-government protest. He now lives exiled in Barcelona.

Jethro Soutar translates from Spanish and Portuguese. He has translated Argentinian and Brazilian crime novels, written two nonfiction books of his own, and recently co-edited The Football Cronicas, a collection of football writing from Latin America. He divides his time between London and Lisbon.