Skip to Main Content

Sea of Eden

Translated by Sophie Hughes
Published by Oneworld Publications
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book

WINNER OF SPAIN'S NATIONAL CRITICS AWARD

The epic literary adventure that has transfixed readers and critics alike in Spain

Almost four hundred passengers are on board the Boeing 747 en route from Los Angeles to Singapore. Only a handful will survive the crash.

Washed ashore on a tiny island with no means of contacting the outside world, tension and fear threaten to overwhelm the group. But as they endeavour, day by day, to survive, they find themselves forced to confront the reality of the lives they left behind.

Written in deftly cinematic prose, Andrés Ibáñez’s stunning novel is already considered a modern classic in Spain, expertly translated here by Sophie Hughes.

'Ibáñez is, quite simply, a genius' La Vanguardia

About The Author

Andres Ibáñez is a Spanish novelist and poet. He originally trained at the Conservatorio de Madrid and worked as a jazz pianist for 10 years. He has lived in New York and Mexico and writes regularly about books and Classical Music on the cultural press. He published his first novel in 1995 and in 2014 was awarded the prestigious "Premio Nacional de la Crítica" for Sea of Eden, published originally in Spanish as Brilla, mar del Edén.

Sophie Hughes has translated novels by several contemporary Latin American and Spanish authors, including Best Translated Book Award 2017 finalist Laia Jufresa (Umami). Her translations, reviews and essays have been published in The Guardian, The White Review, the Times Literary Supplement and elsewhere. Her translation of Alia Trabucco Zerán's The Remainder was shortlisted for the 2019 Man Booker International Prize.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Oneworld Publications (February 2, 2023)
  • Length: 768 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781786079213

Browse Related Books

Raves and Reviews

'An audacious figure with a cult following among those seeking an alternative to more naturalist writing.'

– Times Literary Supplement

'Ibáñez has written a huge novel, and he does an excellent job of hooking you in from the beginning with the fast pace... A love letter to humanity and nature, art and culture.'

– Litro Magazine

'Andrés Ibañez is an extraordinary novelist. Sea of Eden is outlandish, unexpected and unusual... Andrés Ibáñez's masterpiece situates the author comfortably alongside Roberto Bolaño.'

– ABC Cultural

'The author breaks rules few novelists would dare to violate...and the experiment works. Sea of Eden is an
ambitious, maximalist, cosmopolitan, encyclopaedic novel overflowing with vitality.'

– Eduardo Lago, Revista de libros

'A work of great experience and enlightenment, unique not only in the landscape of recent Spanish literature but, I would argue, across our entire literary history. Pure literary magic, of the kind we encounter only in the work of great talents.'

– Revista de Libros

'A literary wonder of unbridled imagination.'

– Diario de Lecturas

'An excellent and entertaining novel... A story of feeling and passion in which love, friendship, eroticism, hatred, suspicion, pleasure and pain are always present, not to mention humour.'

– Babelia

'A book that will fill many hours with pleasurable, entertaining, philosophical reading.'

– El Placer de la Lectura

'One of the most necessary, ambitious and, yes, fun novels published in Spanish (or, indeed, in any language) in the past few decades.'

– Notodo.com

'[Ibáñez is], quite simply, a genius.'

– La Vanguardia

'There are no limits to his capabilities as a storyteller... If there's a writer who can pull off new tricks, whilst staying true to his well-established, unmistakable fictional universe, it's Ibañez.'

– El Cultural

Resources and Downloads

High Resolution Images