Bøger af Javier Marias

In the middle of a family lunch Teresa, just married, goes to the bathroom, unbuttons her blouse and shoots herself in the heart. What made her kill herself immediately after her honeymoon?

Revealing that Conrad actually hated sailing and Emily Bronte was so tough she was known as 'The Major', among many other stories of eccentricity, drunkenness and even murder, this book uses unusual angles and peculiar details to illuminate writers' lives in a new way.

Forelskelser er en fængslende roman om kærlighedens gåder og skæbens magt fra en af Spaniens absolut største forfattere: Javier Marias. María Dolz kan ikke slippe tanken om det lykkelige ægtepar Deverne, som hun hver dag iagttager på en cafe i Madrid. Især ikke, da hun opdager, at den forelskede Miguel Deverne er fundet død efter et brutalt knivoverfald. Hvad var den den lykkelige historie egentlig om de to? Og er forelskelse i det hele taget en god ting for os mennesker?

Un volumen que coloca a Marías entre los maestros del género, entre Cortázar, Salinger, Poe o el primer Capote. Mientras ellas duermen, título a su vez de uno de los relatos de este volumen, sirve para definir el hilo conductor de los restantes, cuyos protagonistas parecen situados en el espacio indeterminado de la vigilia, en la irrealidad del sueño. La galería de personajes trazados por Marías es, de nuevo, inigualable: un fantasma de los años treinta aún no ahuyentado; un capitán del ejército de Napoleón durante la campaña de Rusia; el León de Nápoles, protagonista de El hombre sentimental, cuando era niño; dos dobles que harán la vida imposible a sus originales; una belleza tan irreal que sólo puede permanecer en la muerte, o un mayordomo neoyorquino encerrado en un ascensor. ENGLISH DESCRIPTIONA dozen unforgettable stories by “one of the most original writers at work today” (Wyatt Mason, The New York Times Book Review).   Slippery figures in anomalous situations ― ghosts, spies, bodyguards, criminals ― haunt these stories by Javier Marías: the characters come bearing their strange and special secrets, and never leave our minds. In one story, a man obsessed with his much younger lover endlessly videotapes her every move, and then confides his surprising plans for her. In another, a ghost can’t stop resigning from his job. Masterfully, Marías manages in a small space to perplex and delight. “The short story fits Marías like a glove,” as Le Point noted. His stories have been hailed as “formidably intelligent” (The London Review of Books), “a bracing tonic” (Chicago Tribune), and “startling” (The New York Times Book Review).

Una apasionante historia de espías y, al mismo tiempo, un profundo examen del matrimonio basado en secretos y mentiras. En el colegio, Berta Isla decidió que se casaría con Tomás Nevinson, el apuesto chico de su clase, medio español medio inglés, con un extraordinario don de lenguas. Pero cuando Tomás regresa a Madrid tras sus estudios en Oxford, es un hombre diferente. Allí ha sido reclutado por un agente de los servicios secretos británicos, desencadenando así una serie de acontecimientos que afectarán la vida que ambos habían planeado. Con su inigualable modo de explorar los más oscuros rincones del ser humano, Marías sumerge al lector en el creciente abismo que se abre lentamente entre Berta y Tomás y las decisiones que cambiarán irremediablemente a ambos. Berta Isla es una novela sobre el amor y la verdad, sobre el miedo y los secretos, sobre las identidades ocultas y el destino que decidimos asumir en nuestra vida. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION From award-winning, internationally best-selling Spanish writer, author of The Infatuations, comes a gripping novel of intrigue and missed chances--at once a spy story and a profound examination of a marriage founded on secrets and lies. When Berta Isla was a schoolgirl, she decided she would marry Tomás Nevinson--the dashing half-Spanish, half-English boy in her class with an extraordinary gift for languages. But when Tomás returns to Madrid from his studies at Oxford, he is a changed man. Unbeknownst to her, he has been approached by an agent from the British intelligence services, and he has unwittingly set in motion events that will derail forever the life they had planned. With peerless insight into the most shadowed corners of the human soul, Marías plunges the reader into the growing chasm between Berta and Tomás and the decisions that irreversibly change the course of the couple's fate. Berta Isla is a novel of love and truth, fear and secrecy, buried identities, and the destinies we bring upon ourselves.

Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me is a riveting novel of infidelity and a man trapped by a terrible secret.Marta has only just met Victor when she invites him to dinner at her Madrid apartment while her husband is away on business. When her two-year-old son finally falls asleep, Marta and Victor retreat to the bedroom. Undressing, she feels suddenly ill; and in his arms, inexplicably, she dies. What should Victor do? Remove the compromising tape from the answering machine? Leave food for the child for breakfast? These are just his first steps, but he soon takes matters further; unable to bear the shadows and the unknowing, Victor plunges into dark waters. And Javier Marías, Europe's master of secrets, of what lies reveal and truth may conceal, is on sure ground in this profound, quirky, and marvelous novel.

Un profesor español narra sus experiencias durante dos singulares años en la histórica Universidad de Oxford, una ciudad fuera del mundo y del tiempo. Todas las almas coincide con un nombre bien conocido en Oxford, el All Souls College, miembro del grupo de colegios que integran la famosa universidad. Con una buena dosis de humor negro, el narrador nos presenta una serie de cautivadores y extraordinariamente divertidos personajes: su amante casada, Clare Bayes, una mujer condicionada por algo que presenció pero que no recuerda; su amigo Cromer-Blake, un hombre que vive fabricando experiencias intensas para una vejez que prevé solitaria; el ya retirado y sagaz profesor Toby Rylands; el merodeador Alan Marriott, con su perro de tres patas; y muchos otros, hasta llegar al enigmático escritor John Gawsworth. Lleno de encuentros de amor y amistad, Todas las almas ofrece al lector un mundo excéntrico y entretenido, cómico e inquietante, magistralmente narrado, contra el trasfondo de una bella y enigmática ciudad.

Previously published as: A Heart So White.

«Matar no es tan extremo ni tan difícil e injusto si se sabe a quién.»Tras la aclamada Berta Isla, llega la nueva y esperada novela de Javier Marías. Una intriga absorbente que explora el envés del «No matarás». «Yo fui educado a la antigua, y nunca creí que me fueran a ordenar un día que matara a una mujer. A las mujeres no se las toca, no se les pega, no se les hace daño#» Dos hombres, uno en la ficción y otro en la realidad, tuvieron la oportunidad de matar a Hitler antes de que éste desencadenara la Segunda Guerra Mundial. A partir de este hecho, Javier Marías explora el envés del «No matarás». Si esos hombres quizá debieron disparar contra el Führer, ¿cabe la posibilidad de hacerlo contra alguien más? Como dice el narrador de Tomás Nevinson, «ya se ve que matar no es tan extremo ni tan difícil e injusto si se sabe a quién». Tomás Nevinson, marido de Berta Isla, cae en la tentación de volver a los Servicios Secretos tras haber estado fuera, y se le propone ir a una ciudad del noroeste para identificar a una persona, medio española y medio norirlandesa, que participó en atentados del IRA y de ETA diez años atrás. Estamos en 1997. El encargo lleva el sello de su ambiguo ex-jefe Bertram Tupra, que ya, mediante un engaño, había condicionado su vida anterior. La novela, más allá de su trama, es una profunda reflexión sobre los límites de lo que se puede hacer, sobre la mancha que casi siempre trae la evitación del mal mayor y sobre la dificultad de determinar cuál es ese mal. Con el trasfondo de episodios históricos de terrorismo, Tomás Nevinson es también la historia de qué le sucede a quien ya le había sucedido todo y a quien, aparentemente, nada más podía ocurrir. Pero, mientras no terminan, todos los días llegan#ENGLISH DESCRIPTION The final novel from Spain's most acclaimed writer, a novel about a charismatic half-Spanish, half-English man who is recruited by British intelligence "Javier Marías's best work." --El País After his acclaimed Berta Isla, comes Javier Marías' long-awaited new novel. It is a mesmerizing intrigue that explores the underside of "Thou shalt not kill." Two men, one in fiction and one in reality, had the opportunity to kill Hitler before he unleashed World War II. Based on this fact, Javier Marías explores the basis of "You shalt not kill." As its narrator put it, "you can see that killing is not so extreme or so difficult and unfair depending on who your target is." Tomas Nevinson, Berta Isla's husband, falls into the temptation of returning to the Secret Services. In 1997, after having been away for a while, he was assigned to go to a northwestern city in search of a suspect who participated in attacks made by the IRA and ETA ten years before. The novel is a deep reflection on the limits and restraints of what can be done, on the stain that comes with avoiding the greatest evil, and on the struggle of determining what that evil is. Against the background of historical terrorist attacks, Tomas Nevinson is also the story of what happens to someone who has already had everything happen to him, and to whom, apparently, nothing else could happen.

A story of love and memory. On a train journey from Paris to Madrid a young opera singer becomes fascinated by those in his compartment: a middle-aged businessman, his alluring wife and their male traveling companion. Soon his life of constant travel, luxury hotels, rehearsal and performance will become entangled with these three people, and the singer will find himself fatefully consumed by Natalia's beauty. The Man of Feeling is the haunting story of the birth and death of a passion, told in retrospect. Intricately interweaving desire and memory, it explores the nature of love, and asks whether we can ever truly recall something that no longer exists.

MEJOR LIBRO DEL AÑO SEGÚN BABELIA (EL PAÍS) Seleccionado entre los mejores libros del año en ABC Cultural y La Vanguardia. Recomendado entre los libros del año por El Periódico y La Razón.La nueva novela de Javier Marías.Un día cualquiera, «un día estúpido», condicionará el resto de su existencia.La envolvente y apasionante historia de una espera.«Durante un tiempo no estuvo segura de si su marido era su marido. A veces creía que sí, a veces creía que no, y a veces decidía no creer nada y seguir viviendo su vida con él, o con aquel hombre semejante a él, mayor que él. Pero también ella se había hecho mayor por su cuenta, en su ausencia, era muy joven cuando se casó.»Muy jóvenes se conocieron Berta Isla y Tomás Nevinson en Madrid, y muy pronta fue su determinación de pasar la vida juntos, sin sospechar que los aguardaba una convivencia intermitente y después una desaparición. Tomás, medio español y medio inglés, es un superdotado para las lenguas y los acentos, y eso hace que, durante sus estudios en Oxford, la Corona ponga sus ojos en él. Un día cualquiera, «un día estúpido» que se podría haber ahorrado, condicionará el resto de su existencia, así como la de su mujer.Berta Isla es la envolvente y apasionante historia de una espera y de una evolución, la de su protagonista. También de la fragilidad y la tenacidad de una relación amorosa condenada al secreto y a la ocultación, al fingimiento y a la conjetura, y en última instancia al resentimiento mezclado con la lealtad. O, como dice una cita de Dickens hacia el final del libro, es la muestra de que «cada corazón palpitante es un secreto para el corazón más próximo, el que dormita y late a su lado». Y es también la historia de quienes quieren parar desgracias e intervenir en el universo, para acabar encontrándose desterrados de él.ENGLISH DESCRIPTIONThe new novel by Javier Marías. A typical day, "a stupid day," will determine the rest of their existence. The engrossing, thrilling story of waiting. "For awhile, she wasn't sure if her husband was her husband. Sometimes she thought so, sometimes she thought not, and sometimes she decided not to believe anything and to keep living her life with him, or with that man who seemed like him, but older. But she had also become older because of him, in his absence; she had been very young when they got married." Berta Isla and Tomás Nevinson met each other in Madrid at a very early age, and quickly decided to spend their lives together, never suspecting that an intermittent coexistence-and later, a disappearance-awaited them. Tomás, half Spanish and half English, is exceptionally gifted at languages and accents, which attracts the eye of the Crown during his studies at Oxford. One typical day, "a stupid day," which could have been spared, will determine the rest of his existence, as well as that of his wife. Berta Isla is the engrossing, thrilling story of a wait and an evolution: that of its protagonist. And also of the fragility and tenacity of a loving relationship condemned to secrets and concealment, to pretenses and speculation, and finally, to resentment mixed with loyalty. Or, as a Dickens quote toward the end of the book states, it is the proof that "every beating heart […] is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it." And it is also the story of those who want to stop misfortune and intervene in the universe, only to end up finding themselves banished from it.

Javier Mar¿ is the author of sixteen works in Spanish, which have been translated into forty-five languages including English. His translated English works are All Souls, A Heart So White, Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me, When I Was Mortal, Dark Back of Time, The Man of Feeling, Voyage Along the Horizon, Written Lives, the Your Face Tomorrow trilogy (Fever and Spear, Dance and Dream and Poison, Shadow and Farewell), Bad Nature, While the Women Are Sleeping, The Infatuations, Thus Bad Begins and, Venice, An Interior. Javier Mar¿ has received numerous literary prizes including the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Prix Formentor. He lives and works as a translator and columnist in Madrid.

Javier Mar¿ is the author of sixteen works in Spanish, which have been translated into forty-five languages including English. His translated English works are All Souls, A Heart So White, Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me, When I Was Mortal, Dark Back of Time, The Man of Feeling, Voyage Along the Horizon, Written Lives, the Your Face Tomorrow trilogy (Fever and Spear, Dance and Dream and Poison, Shadow and Farewell), Bad Nature, While the Women Are Sleeping, The Infatuations, Thus Bad Begins and, Venice, An Interior. Javier Mar¿ has received numerous literary prizes including the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Prix Formentor. He lives and works as a translator and columnist in Madrid.

"It all happened because of Elvis Presley." Elvis, down south of the border to film a movie, has insisted his producers hire a proper Spaniard so that he can pronounce his few lines in Spanish with a Castillian accent. But Ruibérriz has taken on much more than he bargained for. One fatal night, horseplay in a local bar goes too far: a fatuous drunken American insults the local kingpin, and when the thug insists that Ruibérriz translate, Elvis himself adds an even more stinging comment-and who must translate that?

Poison, Shadow, and Farewell, with its heightened tensions between meditations and noir narrative, with its wit and and ever deeper forays into the mysteries of consciousness, brings to a stunning finale Marías's three-part Your Face Tomorrow. Already this novel has been acclaimed "exquisite" (Publishers Weekly), "gorgeous" (Kirkus), and "outstanding: another work of urgent originality" (London Independent). Poison, Shadow, and Farewell takes our hero Jaime Deza-hired by MI6 as a person of extraordinarily sophisticated powers of perception-back to Madrid to both spy on and try to protect his own family, and into new depths of love and loss, with a fluency on the subject of death that could make a stone weep.

Every day, Maria Dolz stops for breakfast at the same cafe. And every day she enjoys watching a handsome couple who follow the same routine. Then one day they aren't there, and she feels obscurely bereft.

'We lose everything because everything remains except us'. In this book, the author recalls the strange events and people that shaped his past, including ghostly literary figures, a pilot, an adventurer, a brother who died as a child and the king of an island in the Caribbean, we begin to question the nature of time, memory and reality itself.