Thus bad begins
By: Javier Marías ; translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa
Contributors: Costa, Margaret Jull, translator
Edition: First American edition.
Publisher: Knopf
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 443
ISBN-13: 9781101946084
Subjects: Married people; Man-woman relationships; Fiction
Work titles: Así empieza lo malo
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.
Notes: Translation from the Spanish of: Así empieza lo malo.