Así empieza lo malo

By Margaret Jull Costa, Javier Marías

Subjects: Productores y directores de cinematografía, Matrimonios, Motion picture producers and directors, Novela, Man-woman relationships, fiction, Couples mariés, Secretarias, Películas cinematográficas, Productores y directores, Romans, nouvelles, Spanish literature, history and criticism, Spanisch, Fiction, family life, Directores de cine, Fiction, Romance literature, Man-woman relationships, Married people, Personas casadas, Fiction, psychological, Married people, fiction, Spain, fiction, Relations entre hommes et femmes, Relaciones hombre-mujer

Description: Madrid, 1980. Juan de Vere, nearly finished with his university degree, takes a job as personal assistant to Eduardo Muriel, an eccentric, once-successful film director. Urbane, discreet, irreproachable, Muriel is an irresistible idol to the young man. But Muriel's voluptuous wife, Beatriz, inhabits their home like an unwanted ghost; and on the periphery of their lives is Dr. Jorge Van Vechten, a family friend implicated in unsavory rumors that Muriel now asks Juan to investigate. As Juan draws closer to the truth, he uncovers only more questions. What is at the root of Muriel's hostility toward his wife? How did Beatriz meet Van Vechten? What happened during the war? Marías leads us deep into the intrigues of these characters, through a daring exploration of rancor, suspicion, loyalty, trust, and the infinitely permeable boundaries between the deceptions perpetrated on us by others and those we inflict upon ourselves.