A meditation on thought and consciousness, identity and disguise, the gloriously rolling sentences offer the deep pleasures of a brilliant mind apprehending the world in real time

This is a spy thriller, but it reads like one transposed into music . . . Marías mesmerises us again and we are swept on by the long, powerful swells of his prose

The last word from a master . . . His writing is often thrilling in a way that’s distinct from any other author I know . . . once you’ve been inside Marías’ world, to spend too long outside is unbearable

A writer who loves the propulsiveness of the thriller, the page-turning compulsion that drives a reader through Eric Ambler or John le Carré

Mariás demonstrates why so many of his peers believe him to be among the greatest of contemporary novelists

The most subtle and gifted writer in contemporary Spanish literature

A Marías sentence is a place of infinite richness and surprises

No one else, anywhere, is writing quite like this

What makes Marías novels enthralling . . . is the irresistible, ruminative, allusive, Jamesian narrative voice

A Spanish literary great . . . His writing is fine and subtle

Javier Marías’s writing doesn’t resemble anyone else’s. It’s easy to parody, but impossible to imitate . . . Javier Marias was the best writer in Spain

Marías occupied a reputational perch in Spanish culture that would be almost inconceivable for an American author . . . Most considered him the greatest living Spanish writer