"The Tenant" and "The Motive" are two darkly humorous novels from the award-winning author of "Soldiers of Salamis". "The Tenant" is the mischievous story of Mario Rota, a linguistics professor whose life starts to unravel after he twists his ankle while out jogging one day. A rival professor appears, takes over his classes and bewitches his girlfriend. Where will Rota's nightmare end - and where did it begin? "The Motive" is a satire about a writer, Alvaro, who becomes obsessed with finding the ideal inspiration for his novel. First he begins spying on his neighbours, then he starts leading them on, creating a reversal of the maxim that art follows life, with some dire consequences. Written with a supremely light touch, these witty novels are enjoyable masterpieces that linger long in the memory.
| ||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
'Javier Cercas is one of the hottest properties in contemporary Spanish fiction ... Cercas is a superficially humorous and profoundly disturbing author. In his novels, reality is less convincing than fiction and fantasy never stranger than truth' Amanda Hopkinson, Observer 'Both funny and sinister ... The Motive is a small comic masterpiece with a satisfyingly bleak ending ... It is a pleasure to read such original, haunting stories in which so much is said with such wit and insight and above all with such refreshing economy' Anne Chisholm, Sunday Telegraph 'Light, clever and enjoyable ... assured and accomplished' Allan Massie, Daily Telegraph 'Javier Cercas has some twisty Nabokovian fun with the plot ... the stories convey a sense of a novelist at play' Financial Times
About the Author
Javier Cercas is the author of novels, stories and essays. His novel Soldiers of Salamis has sold over 500,000 copies in Spain, been filmed and has been published in twenty languages. He lives in Girona, where he teaches Spanish Literature at the University.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Two light but darkly humorous novellas,
By
This review is from: Tenant and the Motive (Paperback)
"The Tenant" and "The Motive" are two light yet darkly humorous novellas by one of Spain's leading contemporary authors, who is best known for his novel "Soldiers of Salamis," the winner of the 2004 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. In the first novella, a university professor of linguistics experiences a Kafkaesque turn of events after an ankle sprain, as a renowned (but unknown to him) fellow linguistics professor moves in next door to him, takes over his office and classes, and steals his girlfriend while he remains powerless to change his fate. In "The Motive", a part-time lawyer and budding writer envisions a novel in which a young couple in financial straits murders an elderly man for his hidden money, but he has trouble putting voices to the characters. The writer befriends a couple and an old man who live in the same building as he, and, in a reversal of the concept of "life becomes art", he injects himself and alters their three lives, using taped conversations to write his story. These novellas were a joy to read, and I'll be looking for more of Cercas' works in the near future.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
