Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Last Night at Tremore Beach
WORK NOTES: trans by Carlos Frias
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1975
WEBSITE: http://mikelsantiago.info/
CITY: Amsterdam
STATE:
COUNTRY: Netherlands
NATIONALITY: Spanish
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in 1975 in Portugalete, Vizcaya, Spain; married.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, software developer, and musician.
AVOCATIONS:Playing guitar.
AWARDS:Top Ten international bestseller, The Last Night at Tremore Beach; Barnes & Noble Best Seller Spanish Titles, “Historia de un crimen perfecto”.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Mikel Santiago is a writer, software developer, and musician. He writes short stories and novellas. His short story, “Historia de un crimen perfecto,” made it to the Barnes & Noble Best Seller Spanish Titles in the U.S.
Santiago was born in Portugalete, Vizcaya, Spain in 1975 and has lived in Ireland, the Netherlands, and Bilboa. Santiago is married and lives in Amsterdam.
The Last Night at Tremore Beach, translated from Spanish by Carlos Frias, is Santiago’s first novel. It is a Top Ten international bestseller. Peter Harper, the protagonist of the novel, is a heartbroken composer. Having just experienced a painful divorce, Peter has retreated to isolated Tremore Beach in Ireland.
A successful composer, Peter has come to the island to process the fact that his wife has fallen in love with another man, as well as the fact that his creative career has been stalled. Though Peter had intended to stay solitary while on the island to overcome his heartbreak and assess his musical career, friendly neighbors Leo and Marie Kogan and Judie, the manager of a local hostel, soon enter into his life. Leo and Marie are older and friendly, inviting Peter to spend time at their home and share meals. Peter and Judie are drawn to one another, and it seems that a romantic future is inevitable.
Before that can happen, Peter has an accident. One evening, while driving home from the Kogan’s after dinner, Peter is struck by lightning. After the nearly fatal accident, he is left with terrible headaches and begins to have terrifying sleepwalking nightmares. In the nightmares, Leo and Marie, and then Judie and his children, are terrorized by a group of sadistic demons, and Peter is helpless to stop it.
Peter fears the lightning strike has granted him with the power to see the horrific future. His mother had the ability to see the future, and he wonders if he has inherited this power. He agrees to see a psychotherapist, but simultaneously begins to investigate the dreams himself, worried that if he fails to take action then they will become reality.
As the story progresses, Peter becomes more and more confused about what is real and what is in his mind, and panic sets in when it seems that danger is imminent. Susan Clifford Brain in Library Journal wrote, “plausible characters, wonderful atmosphere, and a solidly written story with just enough scariness will keep readers engaged to the very last page.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, January 1, 2017, Christine Tran, review of The Last Night at Tremore Beach, p. 44.
Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2016, review of The Last Night at Tremore Beach.
Library Journal, February 1, 2017, Susan Clifford Braun, review of The Last Night at Tremore Beach, p. 75.
Publishers Weekly, December 12, 2016, review of The Last Night at Tremore Beach, p. 123.
ONLINE
Crime Fiction Lover, https://crimefictionlover.com (March 13, 2017 ), review of The Last Night at Tremore Beach.
Mikel Santiago is the author of several short stories and novellas. His short story Historia de un crimen perfecto became a #1 bestseller on several online platforms. Santiago currently resides in Amsterdam and spends his time writing, developing software, and playing guitar.
Mikel Santiago was born in northern Spain in 1975 and is a musician and writer. He is the author of a novella, History of a Perfect Crime, and The Last Night at Tremore Beach is his first novel and was a Top Ten international bestseller. He spent over a decade living in Ireland and the Netherlands, and now lives in Bilbao with his family.
Become a Fan
Mikel Santiago was born in Portugalete (Vizcaya) in 1975. He devoted his youth to play in a Rock'n'Roll Band and only later he started writing and publishing short tales in the web. One of his shorts ("Historia de un crimen perfecto") made it to the Barnes & Noble Best Seller Spanish Titles in the U.S. He has lived in Ireland and the Netherlands for almost a decade. Now he combines his life as a writer with a rock band and his passion for software development.
Santiago, Mikel. The Last Night at Tremore Beach
Susan Clifford Braun
142.2 (Feb. 1, 2017): p75.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
* Santiago, Mikel. The Last Night at Tremore Beach. Atria. Feb. 2017. 320p. ISBN 9781501102240. $26; ebk. ISBN 9781501102271. F
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Composer Peter Harper has taken shelter on Ireland's remote Tremore Beach to lick his wounds and regroup in the wake of a painful divorce. After dinner with neighbors one dark and stormy night, he's struck by lightning. Peter survives but suffers severe headaches and bizarre dreams. As his condition begins to blur the boundaries between nightmare and reality, the help he seeks from both friends and professionals provides little comfort and much confusion. Is Judie really the true love Peter craves? Can he protect his kids from his internal terrors? Should he stay at the blustery shore of Tremore or hightail it back to Amsterdam and the pain of being so close to his ex? VERDICT Santiago's debut ticks all the boxes for a first-rate thriller. Plausible characters, wonderful atmosphere, and a solidly written story with just enough scariness will keep readers engaged to the very last page. Admirers of Ruth Ware and Susan Hill will love it.--Susan Clifford Braun, Bainbridge Island, WA
Braun, Susan Clifford
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Braun, Susan Clifford. "Santiago, Mikel. The Last Night at Tremore Beach." Library Journal, 1 Feb. 2017, p. 75+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA479301221&it=r&asid=676e4b6c6a0829278d37657747683e4e. Accessed 23 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A479301221
The Last Night at Tremore Beach
Christine Tran
113.9-10 (Jan. 1, 2017): p44.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
The Last Night at Tremore Beach. By Mikel Santiago. Tr. by Carlos Frias. Feb. 2017. 320p. Atria, $26 (9781501102240); e book, 513.99 (9781501102271).
After a grueling divorce, acclaimed composer Peter Harper retreats to an isolated seaside cottage in Donegal to confront his creative stumbling blocks. Although he'd intended to find solitude, Peter makes fast friends with his nearest neighbors, Leo and Marie Kogan, and with Judie, the manager of a local hostel. Then, while driving home from a night at the Kogans' cottage, Peter barely survives being struck by lightning and is left with stabbing headaches and horrific sleepwalking nightmares. In these dreams, Peter watches helplessly as the Kogans, then Judie and his young children, are terrorized by a sadistic gang. Although he agrees to see a psychotherapist, Peter is convinced that he's begun experiencing the premonitions that haunted his mother. Desperate to forestall the attacks, Peter follows the clues his dreams reveal and soon begins to doubt everything he knows about his new friends. Santiago paints Tremore Beach in alternating strokes of lonely beauty and unpredictable danger, using the setting, hints of the supernatural, and Peter's possible mania to invoke unsettling paranoia.--Christine Tran
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Tran, Christine. "The Last Night at Tremore Beach." Booklist, 1 Jan. 2017, p. 44. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA479077982&it=r&asid=afbe1602f6158f553f8177b0b35e357c. Accessed 23 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A479077982
Santiago, Mikel: THE LAST NIGHT AT TREMORE BEACH
(Dec. 15, 2016):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Santiago, Mikel THE LAST NIGHT AT TREMORE BEACH Atria (Adult Fiction) $26.00 2, 14 ISBN: 978-1-5011-0224-0
A struggling composer tries to get away from it all at a remote Irish beach house, but a chance weather event seems to imbue him with special powers that give him disturbing views of future events. In Spaniard Santiago's English language debut, classical composer Peter Harper, reeling from a recent nasty divorce, relocates temporarily to County Donegal, Ireland, to the remote Tremore Beach near the tiny hamlet of Clenhburran. His only neighbors are Leo and Marie Kogan, an older, bohemian couple who live down the beach. Peter spends much of his time moping about how his creative juices have slowed to a trickle or acting surly when new acquaintances want to know about his past accomplishments. Everything changes one night when he's driving home from Leo and Marie's in a thunderstorm and gets struck by lightning. Considering his rather repugnant personality, readers may be disappointed that he survives with barely a physical scratch, though his mental state is another matter. Plagued first by excruciating headaches and then violent visions that are so real he's convinced an armed takeover of the house is imminent, Peter isn't sure if he's losing his mind or if the lightning has allowed him to tap into some sort of premonition-type power. His girlfriend-in-all-but-name, Judie Gallagher, suggests he see a sleep doctor, but this only intensifies the visions, and when his young children come to visit, Peter is convinced that something terrible is on the horizon, a certainty that the reader simply doesn't share, as Santiago doesn't do the necessary narrative work to either prove or disprove Peter's tenuous state of mind. A sadly squandered setting and a protagonist who's more abrasive than empathetic make for a lackluster story of things, real or imaginary, that go bump in the night.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Santiago, Mikel: THE LAST NIGHT AT TREMORE BEACH." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Dec. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA473652454&it=r&asid=6c406f4dbf8e979fcf9138edc9b90f5a. Accessed 23 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A473652454
The Last Night at Tremore Beach
263.51 (Dec. 12, 2016): p123.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
* The Last Night at Tremore Beach
Mikel Santiago, trans, from the Spanish by
Carlos Frias. Atria, $26 (320p) ISBN 978-15011-0224-0
English composer Peter Harper, devastated by divorce and deserted by his muse, travels to Ireland in hope of healing, in Spanish author Santiago's hair-raising debut. Although inspiration remains elusive, Peter finds living in a remote seaside cottage in Clenhburran, Donegal, restorative. A promising new relationship with go-getter Judie Gallagher, who runs a shop and teaches yoga classes, is a plus. But then one stormy night, shortly before his son and daughter's scheduled visit from their home in Amsterdam, Peter is struck by lightning while returning from a dinner party at the house of his neighbors, Leo and Marie Kogan. Excruciating headaches ensue, along with increasingly harrowing dreams. Are these hallucinatory visions of horrors that are befalling Judie, his beloved children, and even Marie and Leo just a bizarre effect of the lightning--or could Peter somehow be glimpsing the future? Weaving quicksilver supernatural strands into an evocative tapestry of rural Irish life, Santiago conjures a truly haunting page-turner. Agent: Bernat Fiol, SalmaiaLit (Spain). (Feb.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Last Night at Tremore Beach." Publishers Weekly, 12 Dec. 2016, p. 123. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA475225039&it=r&asid=ba86d170eec12867c1025a16590e8125. Accessed 23 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A475225039
The Last Night at Tremore Beach
March 13, 2017
Written by DeathBecomesHer
Published in iBook, Kindle, Print, Reviews
0
Permalink
Written by Mikel Santiago, translated by Carlos Frias — Musician Peter Harper has tasted the big time. He’s won awards for his movie soundtracks and television theme tunes and his career is on the crest of a wave. Then it all comes tumbling down. His wife reveals she is in love with another man, a painful divorce follows and as Peter seeks solace in the bottle he finds it impossible to write music any more. He flees Amsterdam to find peace and inspiration back in the land of his birth, and decides to seek solace on the Irish coast.
An isolated cottage right on the shore at Tremore Beach in wildest Donegal sounds like just the place, and as Peter and his Steinway move in he has high hopes. The locals from the little nearby town of Clenhburran seem friendly enough, and Peter’s nearest neighbours – a couple of miles away – are a welcoming pair. Leo and Marie Kogan are American, and have retired to Ireland after a career in hotel security. They take Peter under their wing and slowly he begins to heal.
Until, that is, the night when a huge storm hits and Peter, driving home after dinner at his friends’ house, is struck by lightning. The strike leaves him with strange, tattoo-like marks on his body and a recurring headache but he is grateful to be alive and relatively unscathed. Then the horrific lucid dreams begin and suddenly Peter is struggling to tell truth from fiction. He becomes convinced that danger is coming to his remote part of Ireland – but how can he make people believe him?
My second review so far this year where the theme is lucid dreaming (the first was Sarah Pinborough’s Behind Her Eyes), and this one is by far the more believable. Peter’s growing confusion over his night visions makes for compelling reading and he is an interesting central character in a debut novel, which was highly-regarded when first published in Spanish in 2014 and became an international best-seller. It’s an interesting plotline, part thriller, part mystery, with a liberal helping of the supernatural thrown in for good measure.
Spanish-born Santiago has spent time living in Ireland, but little of the local knowledge he must have acquired during his stay comes across here. The setting is so rugged and wild that I expected it to become something of an additional character as the tale progressed. Sadly, there were no brightly descriptive passages to bring the place to life and that’s such a pity. Books like Simon Sylvester’s The Visitors and Amanda Jennings’ In Her Wake are great examples of how a moody sense of place can lift a novel to another level, using similar settings.
There are some glaring errors too – nothing in Ireland is paid for by ‘city hall’ and the idea of there being a ‘state highway’ in Donegal made me laugh out loud in disbelief. In truth, this book is hampered by translation that jars and is confusing at times. Is it in American or UK English? I really don’t know, because there are paragraphs that contain both. Spellings such as ‘axe’ and ‘ax’ alternate in most annoying fashion.The dialogue contains Americanisms like ‘gotten’, which don’t ring true. We’re not asking for thick Irish brogue, but a few local phrases here and there wouldn’t have gone amiss.
The Last Night at Tremore Beach is worth reading for its storyline but is let down poor translation and editing. And that’s a shame – we expected better from such a big name in publishing!
Simon & Schuster
Print/Kindle/iBook
£4.99