“We are someone, and we are no one. We are, yet we do not exist; or we exist, yet we are not. We do things, but we do not know what we do, or what we do, Nevinson, no one does. It simply happens.”
Javier Marias

The way he constructs a thought, extends a question, and allows a sentence to wander through the mind for a long time is something that fascinates me about Marías. There is something truly extraordinary about his pen. Marías does not allow you to remain outside what he writes. He draws you into the minds of his characters, into their doubts, into their endless reasoning. And when you close the book, the thought does not close with it. It continues.

In Berta Isla: What does Tomás’s absence do to Berta?

In Tomás Nevinson: What has that entire hidden life done to Tomás himself?

These are the two questions that, for me, most beautifully connect this journey with the author.

When I finished Berta Isla, I could hardly wait to move on to Tomás Nevinson. I had remained caught up in that absence, in the insistence on understanding what had happened to Tomás and what he had left behind. That is why it seemed impossible not to continue.

Both books can be read separately, but I wish I had read them exactly this way, one after the other. Because when you reach Tomás Nevinson, the answers you had been waiting for alongside Berta finally arrive. Only, when you finally get them, you realize that they are not what has kept you in suspense for so long. That is what I love so much about Marías. He makes you think you are searching for an answer, while all along he has taken you somewhere much deeper. He leads you from one thought to the next, urging you to doubt, to wait, to return to what you have just read. It is a kind of manipulation that does not bother you. On the contrary, it satisfies you, because you realize how masterfully he has led you there.

Three women, three personalities, one identity to decipher. Tomás observes them, approaches them, studies them, and tries to read what lies beneath their behavior. And the more he gets to know them, the harder it becomes to understand which one is the woman he is looking for.

A masterpiece. One of Marías’s finest.

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