When I Was Mortal

By Javier Marías

Book Overview

Victims of mistaken identity, sponging relatives, amateur sleuths, eavesdroppers, professional liars, assassins, and failed bodyguards populate the short stories in When I Was Mortal. Plots turn on curious exigencies--a woman about to star in her first porn film; a night doctor who adds new meaning to "specialist"; a ghost whose neglect is greatly resented. "In the space of ten or twenty pages," as the Nouvel Observateur remarked, "Mar as contrives to write a novel." "The short story fits Mar as like a glove," as Le Point noted, and these stories have been acclaimed as "dazzling" (The London Times Literary Supplement); "formidably intelligent" (The London Review of Books); and "startling" (The New York Times Book Review).

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811215164
• ISBN13: 9780811215169
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: New Directions
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.2"