Nevinson Series by Javier Marías

From the award-winning, internationally best-selling Spanish writer, author of The Infatuations, comes a gripping new novel of intrigue and missed chances--at once a spy story and a profound examination of a marriage founded on secrets and lies.When Berta Isla was a schoolgirl, she decided she would marry Tomás Nevinson--the dashing half-Spanish, half-English boy in her class with an extraordinary gift for languages... moreFrom the award-winning, internationally best-selling Spanish writer, author of The Infatuations, comes a gripping new novel of intrigue and missed chances--at once a spy story and a profound examination of a marriage founded on secrets and lies.When Berta Isla was a schoolgirl, she decided she would marry Tomás Nevinson--the dashing half-Spanish, half-English boy in her class with an extraordinary gift for languages. But when Tomás returns to Madrid from his studies at Oxford, he is a changed man. Unbeknownst to her, he has been approached by an agent from the British intelligence services, and he has unwittingly set in motion events that will derail forever the life they had planned. With peerless insight into the most shadowed corners of the human soul, Marías plunges the reader into the growing chasm between Berta and Tomás and the decisions that irreversibly change the course of the couple's fate. Berta Isla is a novel of love and truth, fear and secrecy, buried identities, and the destinies we bring upon ourselves. less

From Spain's most acclaimed writer, a novel about a charismatic half-Spanish, half-English man who is recruited by British intelligence.Thou shalt not kill. But, as our narrator admits, Killing is not so extreme or so difficult or unjust if you know who you are killing, what crimes he has committed or announced he is going to commit, how many evils you would save people from, how many innocent lives would be preserved in exchange . . .The British Embassy, Madrid, 1997... moreFrom Spain's most acclaimed writer, a novel about a charismatic half-Spanish, half-English man who is recruited by British intelligence.Thou shalt not kill. But, as our narrator admits, Killing is not so extreme or so difficult or unjust if you know who you are killing, what crimes he has committed or announced he is going to commit, how many evils you would save people from, how many innocent lives would be preserved in exchange . . .The British Embassy, Madrid, 1997. Against his better judgment, Tom�s Nevinson re-enters the Secret Service and is sent to a small town to identify a suspect behind several deadly terrorist attacks carried out by the IRA and ETA. Nevinson must decide which of three women is the mastermind and kill her before it's too late. The assignment smacks of his former boss Bertram Tupra and his questionable methods--but Nevinson can't see a way out.Tom�s Nevinson is the story of a man who has stretched the limits of what a person can bear, but then is asked to go beyond them. At once a gripping spy narrative and a profound reflection on evil and morality and doubt, it is a chilling, labyrinthine novel that expands Javier Mar�as's fascinating fictional universe. less