When I Was Mortal - Hardcover

Marias, Javier

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0811214311 ISBN 13: 9780811214315

Publisher: New Directions, 2000

Synopsis

These twelve elegant and masterly stories, never before available in English, make a wonderful introduction to the work of Spain's most important contemporary author. When I Was Mortal collects a dozen stories by Javier Marias, "justly considered the most talented Spanish author alive" (Il Messaggero). Victims of mistaken identity, amateur sleuths, professional liars, eavesdroppers, assassins, and failed bodyguards populate these remarkable tales. Plots turn on curious exigencies -- a woman about to star in her first porn film; a night doctor who adds new meaning to "specialist;" a neglectful ghost.

About this title

About the Author

Javier Marias was born in Madrid in 1951. His novels (which have sold more than two and a half million copies worldwide) have been translated into two dozen languages and have won the Ciudad de Barcelona prize, The Spanish Critics' Award, the Premio Internacional de Novela Rmulo Gallegos, the Prize Femina Etranger, the Nelly-Sachs Prize, and the Dublin International Impac Award.

From Publishers Weekly

Like Borges, who felt that every story benefited from a good mystery, Mar!as (A Heart So White) packs murder, intrigue, even ghosts into nearly every one of the dozen short narratives in this collection. Mar!as, one of Spain's most prominent contemporary writers, shows his macabre playfulness right from the start. In "The Night Doctor," a dinner party leads to a nighttime walk through Paris, and introduces two similar Italian women with similarly unpleasant husbands, and a mysterious doctor whose evening visits may put a permanent end to their marital problems. In "Broken Binoculars," a seemingly innocuous conversation at the racetrack develops into a frank discussion of assassination. "Flesh Sunday" features a man looking out from the balcony of his honeymoon hotel room. While his wife lies on the bed behind him, he watches a woman who may--or may not--be waiting for him. These tales, like others in the collection, are enigmatic, almost elliptical, and are related by a narrator distinguished by his urbane wit and unflappability. The one long story here, "Blood on a Spear," typifies the author's taste for misdirection. The intriguing opening scene shows the narrator's friend murdered, impaled on his bed with a naked woman by his side. As the unnamed narrator investigates, he learns that little is as it initially seems. In a foreword, Mar!as reveals that nearly all the short fictions were written on commission, and that many came with external requirements (such as a summer setting, or a crime element), which heightened Mar!as's literary gamesmanship. The foreword also discloses, amusingly, that "Broken Binoculars" originally appeared with the first page accidentally discarded, in what Mar!as calls "the worst printer's error ever perpetrated on one of my texts." (Apr.) FYI: Mar!as won the 1997 International IMPAC Literary Award for A Heart So White.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: New Directions
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0811214311
• ISBN 13: 9780811214315
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176