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Berta Isla
Berta Isla
Oct 5, 2024 8:34 PM

Author:Javier Marías

Berta Isla

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

'No one else, anywhere, is writing quite like this' Daily Telegraph

A thrilling new literary offering from the acclaimed author of The Infatuations and A Heart So White

'For a while, she wasn't sure that her husband was her husband. Sometimes she thought he was, and sometimes not...'

Berta Isla and Tomás Nevinson meet in Madrid. Young and in love, they quickly decide to spend their lives together - never suspecting that they will grow to be total strangers, both living under the shadow of disappearances.

Tomás, half-Spanish and half-English, has an extraordinary gift for languages and accents. Leaving Berta to study at Oxford, he catches the interest of a certain government agency, and its mysterious agent, Bertram Tupra. Tomás is determined to evade the agent's attentions but his fate is sealed by an escalating series of events that will affect the rest of his life - and that of his beloved Berta. Finishing his time at Oxford, he returns to Madrid to marry her, already knowing that the life they planned has been lost forever.

Darkly gripping, Berta Isla examines a relationship condemned to secrecy and concealment, to pretence and conjecture, to resentment mingled with loyalty. With meticulous insight and understanding of the human soul, Marías examines the urge to change our destiny, and the hopeless exile we bring upon ourselves.

Reviews

Marías weaves a thrilling and desolate meditation on the psychic costs of the deep state's dark arts.

—— 1843 Magazine

Magical...finest novel to date

—— Alex Clark

Compelling

—— Tatler

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

There is a mythic heft to all this...Resolution will come, and Reacher will ride out of town once more, taking absolutely nothing with him. The body count, 24 books in, is into the hundreds...a fundamental part of the stories' appeal to women[is] their understated feminism. Reacher respects and likes women...In some ways, Blue Moon might be read...as female revenge drama...But do women fancy Jack Reacher?....the real point is that women want to be him. That's the fantasy: to abandon all responsibilities. To be physically invincible. To be justifiably fearless.

—— Charlotte Higgins , Guardian

An über-thriller in which things turn out just right...it provides a satisfying climax and leaves you breathless, glad to be alive in a wicked world.

—— Evening Standard

Drifter hero Jack Reacher on trigger-happy form in an action adventure which ramps up the violence and body count.

—— Sunday Mirror

Reacher is nigh-invincible here (and certainly smarter than his thuggish opponents), and the body count is even more prodigious than in earlier books, which is saying something. Still, it is dispatched with the author’s customary panache.

—— Barry Forshaw , i

Patterson boils a scene down to the single, telling detail, the element that defines a character or moves a plot along. It's what fires off the movie projector in the reader's mind.

—— MICHAEL CONNELY

Patterson knows where our deepest fears are buried... there's no stopping his imagination.

—— NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Patterson is in a class by himself.

—— VANITY FAIR

Three Hours has a voice all of its own. Character and plot leap out at you from the first line. Rosamund Lupton makes you race through the pages with her irresistible storytelling. Impossible to stop until you reach the poignant end!

—— Jane Corry

I've just finished reading this. Exceptional - so well planned and written. I'm also in awe of Rosamund Lupton

—— Sarah Edghill

Like a breath of icy air. . . Not since Smilla's Feeling for Snow have I shivered like this.

—— Emma Donoghue on 'The Quality of Silence'

Like Kate Atkinson, Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell

—— New York Times on 'Sister'

Devastatingly good, and announces the arrival of a truly original talent

—— Daily Mail on ‘Sister'

Told in a crisp, propulsive first-person voice, Long Bright River is a detailed, realistic portrait of a city and an intimate, incredibly moving study of characters seemingly beyond repair.

—— Irish Times

A haunting tale of addiction and redemption.

—— Woman

A gritty exploration of the power of family ties.

—— Best

Sprawling, intuitive and immaculately told, this is a powerful evocation of grief and regret that haunts to the final page.

—— Daily Mail

Superb

—— Strong Words

Much more than a police procedural, this is multi-layered and the reading pleasure is in the development of the characters.

—— Choice Magazine

A powerful and thought-provoking novel.

—— Fully Booked

A chilling, atmospheric tale of justice, revenge, and the darkness lurking on the fringes of society

—— Daily Express

Vivid characterisation, lots of mystery as well as a twisting plot, it makes for a gripping page turner

—— NB Magazine

The chilling new novel by the bestselling author of The Chalk Man is an absolute page-turner. We'll just say the author isn't referred to as the 'Queen of Creepy' for nothing

—— That's Life

Complex thriller which is suffused with loss, longing and vengeance. Touches of the supernatural add to the spine-tingling thrills

—— The People

A novel with a formidable emotional pull

—— Financial Times

C.J. Tudor is mastering the suspense/horror genre . . . It's quietly disconcerting, completely relatable and shows you that humans have a wonderfully dark side

—— Woman's Weekly

Kidnap mystery and horror suspense all rolled into one as a man is haunted by his abduction of his daughter while the woman who knows what happened is on the run for her life

—— Love it!

Praise for C. J. Tudor

—— -

CJ Tudor taps into those things that woke you up in the night when you were a kid and then stay with you when you're an adult

—— Richard Armitage

Britain's female Stephen King

—— Daily Mail

Some writers have it, and some don't. C. J. Tudor has it big time

—— Lee Child

A dark star is born

—— A. J. Finn

An intense novel that gets right to the heart of what it means to love and grieve

—— Woman

Wonderfully gripping and doubt-inducing

—— Woman & Home
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