Dark Back of Time (Vintage International) - Softcover

Marías, Javier

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0307950743 ISBN 13: 9780307950741

Publisher: Vintage, 2013

Synopsis

A book by Spain's greatest living writer weaves fiction and fact into a completely original and unforgettable hybrid.

Called by its author a "false novel," Dark Back of Time begins with the tale of the odd effects of publishing All Souls, his witty and sardonic 1989 Oxford novel. All Souls is a book Marías swears to be fiction, but which its "characters"--the real-life dons and professors and bookshop owners who have "recognized themselves"--fiercely maintain to be a roman à clef. With the sleepy world of Oxford set into fretful motion by a world that never "existed," Dark Back of Time begins an odyssey into the nature of identity and of time. Marías weaves together autobiography, a legendary kingdom, strange ghostly literary figures, halls of mirrors, a one-eyed pilot, a curse in Havana, and a bullet lost in Mexico.

About this title

Review:

"By far Spain's best writer today." --Roberto Bolaño

"The most subtle and gifted writer in contemporary Spanish literature." --Boston Sunday Globe

"Dazzling.... Javier Marías writes with elegance, with wit and with masterful suspense."--The Times Literary Supplement

"Stylish, cerebral...Marías is a startling talent...His prose is ambitious, ironic, philosophical, and ultimately compassionate." --The New York Times

From the Publisher:

'Javier Marias is in my opinion one of the best contemporary writers' J. M. Coetzee'[I am] enthralled by his strange mix of made-up memories, lost experiences and real-life fantasies.' Marina Warner, Guardian

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0307950743
• ISBN 13: 9780307950741
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336