` The most subtle & gifted writer in contemporary Spanish literature` Boston Globe` Marias has discovered a unique form` Adam Thirlwell, TLS ` No one else, anywhere, is writing quite like this` Daily Telegraph A thrilling new literary offering from the acclaimed author of The Infatuationsand A Heart So White` For a while, she wasn`t sure that her husband was her husb&. Sometimes she thought he was, & sometimes not...` Berta Isla & Tomas Nevinson meet in Madrid. Young & in love, they quickly decide to spend their lives together
- never suspecting that they will grow to be total strangers, both living under the shadow of disappearances. Tomas, half-Spanish & half-English, has an extraordinary gift for languages & accents. Leaving Berta to study at Oxford, he catches the interest of a certain government agency, & its mysterious agent, Bertram Tupra. Tomas is determined to evade the agent`s attentions but his fate is sealed by a series of escalating events that will affect the rest of his life
- & that of his beloved Berta. Finishing his time at Oxford, he returns to Madrid to marry her, already knowing that the life they planned has been lost forever. Darkly gripping, Berta Isla examines a relationship condemned to secrecy & concealment, to pretence & conjecture, to resentment mingled with loyalty. With meticulous insight & understanding of the human soul, Marias examines the urge to change our destiny, & the hopeless exile we bring upon ourselves.