And the years continued to pass and pass, and first, I grew less young, and then, slightly older, I may even have begun to age, although not that much it seems, for I’ve always looked younger than I am, I’m fortunate in that respect and have no complaints, people tend to think I’m at least ten years younger. Judging by Javier Marías’s new novel, I dodged a bullet, not least because of the havoc that a career in espionage wreaks on those closest to you.

Marías weaves a thrilling and desolate meditation on the psychic costs of the deep state's dark arts.

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.

A man, or woman, who knew how to omit would release a much improved novella from this 544‑page tome. George Smiley is perhaps a better model for the twilight realm in which Marías’s characters live … This is an enthralling work … Powerful and indelible. For instance, Tomás’s tutor “looked straight at Tomás with his blue eyes slightly narrowed, and so penetrating they were like sparks, as if they could not help scrutinising everything with a degree of suspicion, to the point that the blue seemed to metamorphose into yellow, like the eyes of a sleepy, but very alert lion, or perhaps some other feline”.Full of humour and intelligence … More sinuous and satisfying than many of its precursors … Ranks as Marías’s best novel in years.

He has published fifteen novels, including The Infatuations and A Heart So White, as well as three collections of short stories and several volumes of essays. In fact, reading Berta Isla, I learned rather more about translation and the Spanish use of the subjunctive than I did about the profession of spying. Remarkables REMARKABLES Intriguing, stunning, or otherwise remarkable books These include fine editions, foreign publications exceptional for their interest or production, special editions and some first-rate books from very small publishers.Peter Wheeler, who recruits Tomás, and Bertie Tupra, his handler, play significant roles in the other books.

Tom now embarks on a double life, posing as an embassy employee and raising a family in Madrid with Berta while frequently travelling abroad to take part in undercover operations. Tomas is determined to evade the agent’s attentions but his fate is sealed by an escalating series of events that will affect the rest of his life – and that of his beloved Berta.As is the case with many of Marías’s protagonists, Tomás, or Tom, is an individual of many identities. Here as elsewhere, the translation by Margaret Jull Costa has a lyrical flow, but she can’t rescue this sentence. 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. Truly multicultural and multilingual, he can claim more than one place of belonging while also being perfectly capable of feeling at ease in more than one cultural setting.