Tomas Nevinson

‘The most subtle and gifted writer in contemporary Spanish literature’ Boston Globe

After the acclaimed Berta Isla comes Javier Marias’s long-awaited new novel.

Tomas Nevinson has left the secret service and returned to his old job working in the British Embassy in Madrid. Assumed dead by his wife Berta, Tomas attempts to resume his old life and heal from his psychological wounds.

But when he is contacted by his old boss, Bertram Tupra, Nevinson reluctantly becomes involved in a plan to locate and eliminate a woman believed to have helped orchestrate the 1987 Hipercor bombing. Detonated by the ETA, a Basque separatist group, the bomb killed 21 people and injured 45. Nevinson is assigned to a north-western Spanish city to find the woman.

Full of mesmerising intrigue, Tomas Nevinson offers a deep reflection into the moral dilemma of whether the extrajudicial killing of a presumed criminal can be justified. Marias’s meticulous insight and dazzling intellectual vigour show why he is so often said to be Spain’s greatest living writer.

PRAISE FOR BERTA ISLA:

‘A twisty, thought-provoking tale that puts notions of truth and morality under pitiless scrutiny’ The Guardian

‘Elegant, discursive, persuasively vivid novel …powerful and indelible’ The National

‘Marias weaves a thrilling and desolate meditation on the psychic costs of the deep state’s dark arts’ 1843 Magazine

‘Magical… [Marias’s] finest novel to date’ Alex Clark

‘Compelling’ Tatler