Open Book

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Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books

Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books, talking to authors and publishers and unearthing lost classics

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Open Book: Javier Marías

26/03/2023

Javier Marías

BBC Radio 4 - Open Book, Javier Marías

Chris Power talks about the writing of Javier Marías.

Chris Power discusses the last novel from the late Spanish writer Javier Marías.

Javier Marías was one of Spain’s foremost writers when he died aged 70 in September 2022. A writer of short stories, essays and novels including The Infatuations, Tomorrow In the Battle Think On Me, and his epic espionage trilogy, Your Face Tomorrow, he was often rumoured to be next in line for the Nobel Prize for Literature.  
Now Marías's last novel, Tomás Nevinson, has just been published in English. In the book he returns to the figure of the spy, as Tomás is called out of retirement to track down a woman involved in a series of ETA bombings. In typical Marias style, the spy novel becomes a meditation on memory, deception and the inescapability of the past. 

Chris Power is joined by the renowned translator Margaret Jull Costa, who worked with Javier Marías for over thirty years. Valerie Miles, co-founder of Spanish Granta, and the literary critic Boyd Tonkin to discuss Tomás Nevinson and the themes of Javier Marías unique brand of fiction.

Booklist – Sunday 26 March and Thursday 30 March 

Tomás Nevinson by Javier Marías: Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
The Infatuations by Javier Marías: Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me by Javier Marías: Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
Your Face Tomorrow 1: Fever and Spear by Javier Marías: Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
Your Face Tomorrow 2: Dance and Dream by Javier Marías: Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
Your Face Tomorrow III: Poison, Shadow and Farewell by Javier Marías: Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
A Heart So White by Javier Marías: Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me by Javier Marías: Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
Berta Isla by Javier Marías: Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
When I was Mortal by Javier Marías: Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
All Souls by Javier Marías: Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
Between Eternities by Javier Marías: Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
The Man of Feeling by Javier Marías: Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
Dark Back of Time by Javier Marías: Translated by Margaret Jull Costa
The Eye by Vladimir Nabokov
A Thousand Forests In One Acorn: An Anthology of Spanish Language Fiction by Valerie Miles

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