Stylish, and spooky, essays on films, books, places and people by a world-class novelist (The Art Desk)

'A Marías sentence is a place of infinite richness and surprises, full of fascinating byways and glimpses of a distant landscape that hoves into view and then fades away' Independent'No one else, anywhere, is writing quite like this' Daily Telegraph

A new and exhilarating collection of writings from the author ofThe Infatuations andA Heart So WhiteInternationally renowned writer Javier Marias is a tireless examiner of the world around us, an enthusiastic debunker of pretensions of every kind, and a true polymath. This new collection of essays shows the full extent of his curiosity and wit, ranging from the literary to the philosophical to the autobiographical, from football to cinema, comic books to mortality to 'Why Almost No One Can Be Trusted'.

Trenchant and wry, subversive and penetrating, Marias demonstrates a dazzling intellectual vigour, showing with exhilarating verve why he is so often said to be Spain's greatest living writer.