THE GRIPPING FINAL NOVEL FROM THE GREATEST SPANISH WRITER OF HIS GENERATION, JAVIER MARÍAS
'The most subtle and gifted writer in contemporary Spanish literature' Boston Globe
Spain in the 1990s is beset by a simmering campaign of terror from Basque separatists ETA, with periodic atrocities shattering an illusory calm. Against this backdrop, retired British Secret Service member Tomás Nevinson - now living a quiet life in his hometown Madrid - is approached by his sinister former handler, Bertram Tupra, with an offer to bring him back in from the cold, for one last assignment: a favour for Tupra, for old times' sake, which is also a favour for a powerful Spanish friend.
His mission: to go back undercover, in a small Spanish town, to find out which of three women who moved there a decade ago is in fact an ETA terrorist, on loan from the IRA, now on the run and living there incognito.
Everything about the assignment is shadowy - from who exactly Nevinson will be working for to the question of what 'justice' he may need to mete out if he is somehow able to unmask one of the three women. But, still in his forties and lured by the appeal of once again being on the inside, he accepts the job.
As he gets closer to the three women, his task becomes ever harder. How - or who - to choose between these three? Intimately involved with each of them, as lover, colleague or friend, he can find no firm clue to resolve the question. But under increasing pressure from his paymasters, choose - and act - he apparently must . . .
Charting a world where right and wrong, and good and evil, are irreparably blurred, Javier Marías takes us on a journey of rare and unforgettable suspense in this, the final novel written before his untimely passing IN 2022.
PRAISE FOR JAVIER MARÍAS:
'Unquestionably the most significant Spanish writer of his generation' Observer
'[Marías] uses language like an anatomist uses a scalpel to lay bare the innermost secrets of that strangest of species, the human being' W. G. Sebald
'One of the greatest contemporary novelists' Le Monde
'A great writer' Salman Rushdie
Review
One of the most acclaimed Spanish authors of his generation . . . a writer who loves the propulsiveness of the thriller, the page-turning compulsion that drives a reader through Eric Ambler or John le Carré . . . with Tomás Nevinson, we are left with a great last novel by which to remember him - Financial Times
The last novel from the late Spanish author is a mesmerising addition to his world of spies and lies . . . This is a spy thriller, but it reads like one transposed into music . . . Marías mesmerises us again and we are swept on by the long, powerful swells of his prose - Guardian
The most subtle and gifted writer in contemporary Spanish literature - Boston Globe
Mariás demonstrates why so many of his peers believe him to be among the greatest of contemporary novelists. Like a secret agent, he is an observer and an eavesdropper, and an inventor - The Herald
A Marías sentence is a place of infinite richness and surprises - Independent
No one else, anywhere, is writing quite like this - Daily Telegraph
Unquestionably the most significant Spanish writer of his generation - Observer
[Marías] uses language like an anatomist uses a scalpel to lay bare the innermost secrets of that strangest of species, the human being -- W. G. Sebald
What makes Marías novels enthralling . . . is the irresistible, ruminative, allusive, Jamesian narrative voice - Daily Telegraph
A Spanish literary great . . . His writing is fine and subtle - Le Monde
Javier Marías's writing doesn't resemble anyone else's. It's easy to parody, but impossible to imitate . . . Javier Marias was the best writer in Spain -- Eduardo Mendoza
Marías occupied a reputational perch in Spanish culture that would be almost inconceivable for an American author. His novels were greeted like blockbuster summer films . . . Most considered him the greatest living Spanish writer - New York Times
About the Author
Javier Marías was born in Madrid in 1951 and died in 2022. He published fifteen novels, three collections of short stories and several volumes of essays. His work has been translated into forty-three languages and has won a dazzling array of international literary awards, including the prestigious Dublin IMPAC award for A Heart So White. He was also a highly practised translator into Spanish of English authors, including Joseph Conrad, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Thomas Browne and Laurence Sterne. He held academic posts in Spain, the United States and in Britain, as Lecturer in Spanish Literature at Oxford University.
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