A Heart So White
1997 Winner

A Heart So White

Translated from the spanish by Margaret Jull Costa

ABOUT
THE BOOK

Juan knows little about his widowed father Ranz, a man with a troubled past: if he has been old no lies, that is because he has asked no questions. All he does know is that before marrying Juan’s mother, Ranz was married to her elder sister who committed suicide. The unspoken dialogue between father and son, however, is to become a spelling out of the horrifying truth when Juan’s wife Luisa turns discreet confessor to the burdened old man. What gradually emerges is a repetition of scenes already experienced by Juan in the course of his travels – a married man blackmailed by his mistress in a Havana hotel, a lonely woman in New York pursuing a series of seedy lovers through the lonely-hearts columns. With remarkable skill and delicacy Javier Marias builds up his colours to produce a startling picture of two generations, two marriages, and of that secret commerce between spouses which rests on the gossamer-thin threads of an unspoken accord.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Javier
Marías

Javier Marías is the author of sixteen works in Spanish, which have been translated into forty-two languages including English. His translated English works are All Souls, A Heart So White, Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me, When I Was Mortal, Dark Back of Time, The Man of Feeling, Voyage Along the Horizon, Written Lives, the Your Face Tomorrow trilogy (Fever and Spear, Dance and Dream and Poison, Shadow and Farewell), Bad Nature, While the Women Are Sleeping, The Infatuations, Thus Bad Begins and, Venice, An Interior. Javier Marías has received numerous literary prizes including the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Prix Formentor. He lives and works as a translator and columnist in Madrid.

Javier Marías is the author of sixteen works in Spanish, which have been translated into forty-two languages including English. His translated English works are All Souls, A Heart So White, Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me, When I Was Mortal, Dark Back of Time, The Man of Feeling, Voyage Along the Horizon, Written Lives, the Your Face Tomorrow trilogy (Fever and Spear, Dance and Dream and Poison, Shadow and Farewell), Bad Nature, While the Women Are Sleeping, The Infatuations, Thus Bad Begins and, Venice, An Interior. Javier Marías has received numerous literary prizes including the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Prix Formentor. He lives and works as a translator and columnist in Madrid.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
18/05/1995
Country
Estonia
Original Language
Spanish
Publisher
Harvill Press
Translator
Margaret Jull Costa
Translation
Translated from the spanish by Margaret Jull Costa

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