Tomás Nevinson
BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 ACCORDING TO GUARDIAN AND THE SPECTATOR
The final novel from one of the greatest writers of the past half century
'No-one nowadays writes prose like Javier Marías . . . If you're already a fan, you'll know what to expect and rejoice. If you're not, what a treat you have in store' The Herald
Tomás Nevinson, a retired MI6 agent, is working for the British Embassy in Madrid when his former handler, the sinister Bertram Tupra, offers to bring him back inside for one last assignment. His mission: to catch and, if necessary, kill a terrorist gone to ground in Northern Spain after bombings in Barcelona and Zaragoza. The trouble is there are three suspects – all women – and it may not actually be any of them. To find out, Nevinson must move incognito to the small town where the three women separately live, and become an intimate friend to each, in the hope of uncovering a clue . . .
A philosophical thriller with a climate of suspense to rival le Carré and a psychological depth that is purely Marias’s own, this is a novel that explores the deepest of human questions: in what circumstances can killing be called just?
Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
'The last word from a master . . . once you've been inside Marías' world, to spend too long outside is unbearable' The Sunday Times
'A twisting espionage tale shot through with slantwise humour . . . seductive and inescapably poignant' Observer
Margaret Jull Costa (Afterword by, Translator)
Margaret Jull Costa has translated the works of many Spanish and Portuguese writers, among them novelists: Javier Marías, José Saramago and Eça de Queiroz, and poets: Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Mário de Sá-Carneiro, Fernando Pessoa and Ana Luísa Amaral. Her work has brought her numerous prizes, among them, the 2018 Premio Valle-Inclán 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 Marías (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 held academic posts in Spain, the United States and in Britain, as Lecturer in Spanish Literature at Oxford University.