A Heart So White [Paperback]

Javier Marias (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 19, 1997

Juan knows little about his widowed father Ranz, a man with a troubled past. He does know, however, that before marrying Juan's mother, Ranz was married to her elder sister, who had committed suicide. The unspoken dialogue between father and son soon becomes a spelling out of the horrifying truth once Juan marries Luisa, who turns discreet confessor to the burdened old man. What gradually emerges into the cold light of day is a repetition of scenes already witnessed by Juan in the course of his travels: a married man blackmailed by his mistress in a Havana hotel, a woman in New York pursuing a sequence of shabby lovers through the lonely-hearts columns. Produced with remarkable skill and delicacy, this is a startling picture of two generations, two marriages, and the secret commerce between spouses that rests on the gossamer-thin threads of an unspoken accord.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Marias...remains almost unknown in America. What are we waiting for? -- Wendy Lesser

About the Author

Javier Marías is the author of several award-winning novels, including All Souls, Dark Back of Time, and Tomorrow in the Battle Think On Me.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Random House UK (June 19, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099448521
• ISBN-13: 978-0099448525
• Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 5 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,136,544 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Javier Marías is an award-winning Spanish novelist. He is also a translator and columnist, as well as the current king of Redonda. He was born in Madrid in 1951 and published his first novel at the age of nineteen. He has held academic posts in Spain, the US (he was a visiting professor at Wellesley College) and Britain, as a lecturer in Spanish Literature at Oxford University. He has been translated into 34 languages, and more than six million copies of his books have been sold worldwide. In 1997 he won the Nelly Sachs Award; the Comunidad de Madrid award in 1998; in 2000 the Grinzane Cavour Award, the Alberto Moravia Prize, and the Dublin IMPAC Award. He also won the Spanish National Translation Award in 1979 for his translation of Tristram Shandy in 1979. He was a professor at Oxford University and the Complutense of Madrid. He currently lives in Madrid.