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Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel was born in 1966 in Equatorial Guinea, Africa's only Spanish-speaking country. His parents were from the remote Annobón Island, off the African coast. His Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Prize-shortlisted By Night the Mountain Burns is based on his memories of growing up on Annobón.Ávila Laurel has been a constant thorn in the side of his country's long-standing dictatorial government. A nurse by profession, for many years he was one of the best known Equatorial Guinean writers not to have opted to live in exile. But, in 2011, after a week-long hunger strike in protest against Obiang's regime, timed to coincide with the President of Spain’s visit to Equatorial Guinea, Ávila Laurel moved to Barcelona. He writes across all media, in particular as a blogger, essayist and novelist.

Praise for Juan Tomas Avila Laurel: 'As a person, Juan Tomas Avila Laurel is gentle, open and funny. As a voice, he is brave, angry, uncompromising. Here is the voice of someone who has courted and suffered persecution for the sake of a better world. How will he be remembered in the end - as revolutionary or martyr? Juan Tomas is not likely to disappear quietly.' William T Vollmann, author of Europe Central ------------ 'Delightfully candid, deceptively sober.' Helen Oyeyemi ------------ 'A leading light of the Equatorial Guinean literature movement.' The Guardian ------------ 'Survival, hope and despair wrestle in this surprising work by Equatorial Guinea's leading author.' Financial Times (Books of the Year 2014) ------------ 'Avila Laurel's dark, troubled narrative of 'our Atlantic Ocean island' is remarkable, original and poetic.' Irish Times ------------ 'Juan Tomas Avila Laurel offers [a] plain style, grown out of the native oral tradition of storytelling. By Night the Mountain Burns is a collection of childhood memories, a working through of hardship and superstition.' The Independent