Bargain @ $1.99 at the standard Canada & US retailers (couponable @ Kobo Canada with
50SUN unlimited use code through Monday) via Steerforth's Pushkin Press imprint which specializes in translating modern foreign-language literature:
In the Beginning was the Sea by contemporary Columbian writer Tomás González (
Wikipedia), his debut satiric literary fiction novel originally published in 1983 under the title
Primero estaba el mar.
Wikipedia ES has a lengthy article about it, which if you already read Spanish, presumably you could read the original novel if it's available in your locale in some form or other.
The young intellectuals J. and Elena leave behind their comfortable lives, the parties and the money in Medellín to settle down on a remote island. Their plan is to lead the Good Life, self-sufficient and close to nature. But from the very start, each day brings small defeats and imperceptible dramas, which gradually turn paradise into hell, as their surroundings inexorably claim back every inch of the 'civilisation' they brought with them. Based on a true story, In the Beginning Was the Sea is a dramatic and searingly ironic account of the disastrous encounter of intellectual struggle with reality - a satire of hippyism, ecological fantasies, and of the very idea that man can control fate.