Dark Back of Time by Javier Marías

Javier Marías

Javier Marías is a Spanish novelist. He is also a translator and columnist.-Life:Javier Marías was born in Madrid. His father was the philosopher Julián Marías, who was briefly imprisoned and then banned from teaching for opposing Franco...

 was first published in 1998. Ester Allen’s English translation was published by New Directions in 2001.

Summary

Called by its author a "false novel," Dark Back of Time begins with the tale of the odd effects of publishing All Souls, is witty and sardonic 1989 Oxford novel. All Souls is a book Marías swears to be fiction, but which its "characters"- the real-life dons and professors and bookshop owners who have "recognized themselves'- fiercely maintain to be a roman a clef. With the sleepy world of Oxford set into fretful motion by a world that never "existed," Marías further stirs things up by weaving together autobiography (the brother who died as a child; the loss of his mother), a legendary kingdom, strange ghostly literary figures, maps and photographs, halls of mirrors, a one-eyed pilot, a bullet lost in Mexico, and a curse in Havana.

Reception

Dark Back of Time has been acclaimed here as "superb" (Review of Contemporary Fiction), "fantastically original" (Talk), "brilliant" (Virginia Quarterly Review), and "a rare gift" The New York Times Book Review

The New York Times Book Review

The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...

: "In the best manner of Borges," The Hudson Review

The Hudson Review

The Hudson Review is a quarterly journal of literature and the arts. It was founded in 1947 in New York by William Ayers Arrowsmith, Joseph Deericks Bennett, and George Frederick Morgan. The first issue was introduced in the spring of 1948...

commented, this hybrid is "lush and mysterious." Javier Marías, translated into thirty-four languages, has sold over four million copies of his books worldwide, and won a dazzling array of awards.

External links

• "Stranger Than Fiction," by Wendy Lesser
  Wendy Lesser
  Wendy Lesser is an American critic, novelist, and editor based in Berkeley, California.Lesser did her undergraduate work at Harvard College and her graduate work at University of California, Berkeley, with time in between at King's College, Cambridge...
  
  , New York Times, May 6, 2001.
• "Getting a grip on the past," by Martin Beagles, Times Literary Supplement, April 18, 2003.
• "Dark Back of Time" at Complete Review
  Complete review
  complete review is a literary website founded in March 1999. It is best known for reviews of novels in English translation, in particular drawing attention to otherwise neglected contemporary works from around the world, but there are also reviews of classics, non-fiction, drama and poetry...
  
  . Includes links to many reviews.