Mare Verlag will publish 'La otra isla', by Francisco Suniaga in Germany next August 2011

We are glad to announce the first international edition of 'La otra isla' (The Other Island), by Venezuelan author Francisco Suniaga. The novel will be published in Germany by Mare Verlag, under the title ''Die anderen insel'', next August 2011

8 reprints in Venezuela.

15.000 copies sold so far

La otra isla takes the structure of a detective novel and adapts it to the chaotic, unpredictable and generally unsatisfactory way in which things – anything – tend to happen in Venezuela. A German couple visit the island on holiday, fall in love with the place and make arrangements to move permanently. One day, Manfred, the husband, discovers an old warehouse where cocks are raised and trained for fighting. He becomes obsessed with it, loses interest in his business, his wife and, ultimately, even himself. Depressed, Manfred drowns in a dangerous beach, where he and Renate, his wife, have a beach bar.

The authorities see nothing out of order but Manfred’s mother in Germany receives an anonymous note claiming there has been foul play. She travels to Margarita and engages a local lawyer to find out what truly happened to her son.

An informal investigation begins, but it soon runs out of steam and ends the only way anything of the kind could end in Venezuela: in nothing.

By immersing the reader in the peculiar underworld of cock fighting with great detail and patience and exploiting the opportunity afforded to him by the presence of foreign characters in what remains a Venezuelan story, Suniaga convincingly creates a scenario where he can build the profile of the island and its people by contrasting its culture with Germany’s.

* “One of the best novels written in Venezuela.” – Correo del Caroni.

* “Suniaga understands the country and its citizens.” – Daily Herald.

Francisco Suniaga was born in Isla Margarita in 1954. La otra isla, his first novel, is one of the most successful Venezuelan novels of the last years. It was followed by El pasajero de Truman and Margarita Infanta, a collection of short stories.