Javier Marías reads from "Thus Bad Begins"

The novel is published three years after his last one, “Enamoramientos,” which received critical and public acclaim.

Thus Bad Begins tells the intimate story of a marriage of many years, narrated by his young witness when this last one is already a mature man. Juan de Vere is 23 years old, he’s just completed his studies and found his first job as personal secretary of a successful film director, in the context of Madrid in 1980. His work allowed to enter the privacy of the family and became an spectator of a mysterious marital misery.

In the book, desire, impunity, the idea of ​​justice … all acts and ideas surrounding love and intimate relationships are reflected, something already common in his previous novels and, in fact, one of the strongest engines in the lives of people, which sometimes leads to go over any loyalty, consideration and even respect in our relationships with others.

About Javier Marías Franco

Marías is a writer, translator and editor, member of the Royal Spanish Academy. He graduated in philosophy and letters, served for two years as a professor of Spanish literature at Oxford University and Wellesley College (Massachusetts). His first publications revealed him as one of the most representative voices of the Spanish narrative of the moment. The author develops complex characters and uncertain situations. Although the framework of his novels and stories is everyday life, there are frequent culturalist references, mostly taken from English letters.

Book presentations

• On Wednesday, November 9 at 7:30 pm at Stevan Dweck Cultural Center, Central Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11238. Free, RSVP.
• On Friday, November 11 at 7:30 pm at 92Y, 1395 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10128. Marías will be introduced by Garth Risk Hallberg, author of City on Fire, who will also interview him after the reading. Buy tickets.