Book description
In the dark narratives that make up When I Was Mortal by
Javier Mar as, winner of the Dublin IMPAC prize and author of the
bestselling A Heart So White, a dapper Paris doctor dispenses a
treatment for dissatisfied wives. A mother auditions for her first
porn movie. A writer working on a study of pain makes himself the
subject of his experiments. A voyeur mistakes a murderer for a fellow
peeping tom ... these are some of the characters observed by the
narrator of these chilling stories. Ironic, unsettling, imbued with
dread and with droll humour, Javier Mar as' short tales cast a shrewd,
sardonic eye on humanity.
Javier Mar as was born in Madrid in 1951. He has published ten
novels, two collections of short stories and several volumes of
essays. His work has been translated into thirty-two languages and won
a dazzling array of international literary awards, including the
prestigious Dublin IMPAC award for A Heart So White. He is also
a highly practised translator into Spanish of English authors,
including Joseph Conrad, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Thomas Browne and
Laurence Sterne. He has held academic posts in Spain, the United
States and in Britain, as Lecturer in Spanish Literature at Oxford University.
