BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 ACCORDING TO GUARDIAN AND THE SPECTATOR

THE FINAL NOVEL FROM THE GREATEST SPANISH WRITER OF HIS GENERATION, JAVIER MARIAS

'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 Tomas 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 Marias 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 MARIAS:

'Unquestionably the most significant Spanish writer of his generation' Observer

'[Marias] 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

About the Author

Margaret Jull Costa (Afterword by, Translator)
Margaret Jull Costa has translated the works of many Spanish and Portuguese writers, among them novelists: Javier Marias, Jose Saramago and Eca de Queiroz, and poets: Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Mario de Sa-Carneiro, Fernando Pessoa and Ana Luisa Amaral. Her work has brought her numerous prizes, among them, the 2018 Premio Valle-Inclan for On the Edge by Rafael Chirbes. In 2013, she was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and, in 2014, she was awarded an OBE for services to literature.

Javier Marias (Author)
Javier Marias 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 held academic posts in Spain, the United States and in Britain, as Lecturer in Spanish Literature at Oxford University.

Reviews
A meditation on thought and consciousness, identity and disguise, the gloriously rolling sentences offer the deep pleasures of a brilliant mind apprehending the world in real time * Guardian, '2023 Summer Reads' *
This is a spy thriller, but it reads like one transposed into music . . . Marias mesmerises us again and we are swept on by the long, powerful swells of his prose * Guardian *
The last word from a master . . . His writing is often thrilling in a way that's distinct from any other author I know . . . once you've been inside Marias' world, to spend too long outside is unbearable * The Sunday Times *
How we will miss the late Javier Marias and his unique genre of slow-motion page-turners, blending thrillery plots with long, equivocating sentences . . . [Tomas Nevinson] is full of the complexities, comedy and most of all contradictions that define his work * Guardian, 'Best Translated Novels of 2023' *
A writer who loves the propulsiveness of the thriller, the page-turning compulsion that drives a reader through Eric Ambler or John le Carre * Financial Times *
Marias demonstrates why so many of his peers believe him to be among the greatest of contemporary novelists * The Herald *
The most subtle and gifted writer in contemporary Spanish literature * Boston Globe *
A Marias sentence is a place of infinite richness and surprises * Independent *
A Spanish literary great . . . His writing is fine and subtle * Le Monde *
Javier Marias'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
Marias occupied a reputational perch in Spanish culture that would be almost inconceivable for an American author . . . Most considered him the greatest living Spanish writer * New York Times *
Javier Marias's farewell novel sees the late Spanish spellbinder leave us in a droll, delicious, thrillerish labyrinth * The Spectator 'Best Books of 2023' *



Book Information
ISBN 9780241568613
Author Javier Marias
Format Hardback
Page Count 656
Imprint Hamish Hamilton Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 846g
Dimensions(mm) 242mm * 162mm * 44mm