Berta Isla

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Hechizante... evoca a creadores de acertijos como Borges, y las tramas de Marías, ingeniosas como jugadas de ajedrez, traen a la mente al gran maestro estratega del siglo XX, Vladimir Nabokov.»

Tomás goes to Estudio later, aged fourteen, but when the pair meet they fall in love and, as we know from the beginning of the book, will eventually marry. However, before that happens, each goes to university. Tomás goes to Oxford (his father is from Oxford) while Berta goes to Complutense in Madrid. They have not had sex before going to university and both will have sexual experiences at university. Berta will attend an anti-Franco demo and will be rescued from a truncheon-wielding policeman by a bullfighter, with whom she has sex once. Tomás has a desultory affair with Janet, a woman who works for the second-hand bookshop Waterfield’s (it really did exist but has now closed down). Berta Island is one of the author’s most complex, daring novels and, without a doubt, the most unsettling and devastating.” Con la situación del relato en tiempo contemporáneo, con el desarrollo de una historia intrigante, con la búsqueda de respuestas a actitudes inexplicables. Con absoluto dominio del lenguaje, utilizando una curiosa estructura de forma, presentando diálogos e intercalándolos con el narrador en el mismo párrafo, con conocimiento del idioma, con abundancia de citas en inglés (qué pena desconocer esta lengua), con riqueza de calificativos, de sinónimos, con profusión de verbos, Javier Marías atrapa al lector hasta el final del libro.

The presence of a copy of Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent at an early scene of crisis for Tomás Nevinson, however, indicates that within this seemingly anglophilic portrait there are undertows of danger, manipulation and imposture not far from the surface.

Deceit and arbitrary power are the dynamos of this dense, compelling novel by one of Europe’s most admired authors … Time reading and thinking about it will be well-spent.” —The Washington Times Durante un tiempo no estuvo segura de si su marido era su marido. A veces creía que sí, a veces creía que no, y a veces decidía no creer nada y seguir viviendo su vida con él, o con aquel hombre semejante a él, mayor que él. Pero también ella se había hecho mayor por su cuenta, en su ausencia, era muy joven cuando se casó. » That cover photo of that woman on the cover. Shrouded in cigarette smoke, in a bathrobe on a patio overlooking la plaza de Oriente in Madrid. Alluring, mesmerizing, fragile, tough, is hiding something. Volendo alzarsi al di sopra dei partiti, va detto che Marias a me piace perché lo vedo come una sorta di ragioniere. La sua frase con la situazione o con il personaggio che descrive deve “tornare”. Nel senso contabile del termine. Deve pareggiare al centesimo. E pareggiare significa che deve corrispondere con precisione al senso.

More by Javier Marías

A novel by Javier Marías, as his millions of readers know, is never what it purports to be. Spain’s most eminent novelist, Nobel laureate in waiting, translated into more than 40 languages, Marías likes to play with existential ideas. [His] stories are always interwoven with deliberations on truth, morality, deceit and the impossibility of knowing one another, with side trips through literature and history … Berta Isla has many of the master’s signature preoccupations … The elegant translation is alive to every nuance … Berta, the desolate wife, is the heart of the story; her first-person narrative eloquently occupies the bulk of the novel … A complex, emotionally torn character, she evolves and matures, and her intimate story carries the book.” —Lee Langley, The Spectator

Regardless of our expectations, as we read, we choose to spend time in an author’s company. In the case of Javier Marías, this is a good decision: his mind is deep, clever, sometimes upsetting, sometimes hilarious, and always intelligent.” Es posible que sea el momento personal que uno vive y en el que de pronto se agradece (o yo agradezco) una lectura que me permita olvidarme del aquí e irme al ahí (adentro del libro, fuera del mundo). Particolarmente grave mi pare il caso di quello femminile, la donna del titolo, Berta Isla, che per centinaia di pagine parla in prima persona (mentre lui è affidato a narratore in terza, e ne guadagna): Berta sembra vivere in un’unica dimensione, quella del mistero che avvolge prima la presenza e poi l’assenza di Tomás. Un po’ poco, un po’ troppo appiattito.

In his latest novel, Berta Isla, Spanish writer Javier Marías delivers an intense, emotionally charged story based on what, at first sight, could be labeled as a story of love and espionage. Set between Madrid and London, the novel tells the story of Berta, a Spanish woman who for twenty-one years (more precisely, between 1969 and 1990) awaits the return home of Tomás (or Tom) Nevinson, her Spanish-British husband. Both characters first fall in love as youngsters while in high school, but once they are married, Tomás’s schooling will take him to Oxford for a doctoral degree in foreign languages. A stellar student, whose learning of Spanish and English began naturally at home in Madrid, Tomás soon becomes an admired polyglot by his professors at Oxford. Upon graduation, because of his great ability to speak many languages and imitate many accents, he is recruited by the British secret service and thus begins his life as an underground agent. Marías transforms a spy thriller into an eloquent depiction of those left behind at home in this rich novel . . . The espionage premise is initially enticing, but the real draw is the depth of Marías’s characterization. This weighty novel rewards readers with the patience for its deliberate dissection of a marriage.” —Publishers Weekly Marias's many fans, of which I am certainly one, will warm to the return to familiar territory, the nods to previous novels, and his trade mark discursive style. But equally anyone who finds him long-winded and repetitive, and who might argue the Your Face Tomorrow trilogy is just Ian Fleming padded out by cod philosophy, is not going to have their mind changed by this novel. Towards the end of his time in Oxford he has a chat with one of his dons, Peter Wheeler, whom we have met in several other Marías novels, particularly the Tu rostro mañana (Your Face Tomorrow ) trilogy. Wheeler, we know from these books, is not only an Oxford don but also a spymaster and something of a Machiavellian character. Because of Tomás’ linguistic talents, he tries to persuade him to join the spy fraternity. Tomás refuses outright. Very soon afterwards, Tomás is caught up in a most unpleasant incident in which he is essentially told that he risks prison. However, were he to join the spies the matter would be buried. We do not hear his decision but we know, from the rest of the novel, what it is. La réception francophone est bonne: J'ai épousé une ombre, magistrale réécriture du mythe de Pénélope et Ulysse [1 ], noir terreau des émotions, une histoire de destruction, de rêve et de nuit, vaste métaphore de la condition humaine [2 ] , [3 ].

They choose each other as life partners with a strange and touching certainty. Their conviction that they are meant to be together is particularly striking in a book that so often asserts our powerlessness over our fate and questions our basis to make judgments about anything. At the same time, there’s a detachment and pragmatism about Berta and Tom. Both lose their virginity to other people: Tom, while he’s at Oxford, studying languages; Berta to a young bullfighter she meets in the street during an anti-government rally. These infidelities only strengthen their conviction that they’re destined for each other. And while not mentioned at all, the real-life cases of figures such as Stakeknife, the British spy who infiltrated the IRA, and the undercover policeman Mark Kennedy, who infiltrated various civil protest groups and had romantic relationships with a number of activists, provide factual validity to what otherwise might seem a far-fetched story. E gli intrighi da spionaggio sono solo l’involucro per parlare di altro dell’assenza, di una scomparsa, dell’attesa, della fiducia traditaMarias often places real figures in his fiction, so to steal from a novelist is no great leap. Morse is a jarring note, though, too playful for the sombre subject in hand. Because for Tomas, joining the secret service ruins his and his wife’s lives. As the years pass, each records their predicament, a duet that grows increasingly bitter and resigned.