From one of Spain's greatest writers — and the international bestselling, award-winning author of The Infatuations —c omes an odyssey into the nature of identity and of time that  weaves together fact and fiction into a completely original and unforgettable hybrid. "Stylish, cerebral...Marías is a startling talent...His prose is ambitious, ironic, philosophical, and ultimately compassionate." — The New York Times Called by its author a "false novel," Dark Back of Time begins with the tale of the odd effects of publishing All Souls , his witty and sardonic 1989 Oxford novel. All Souls is a book Marías swears to be fiction, but which its "characters"—the real-life dons and professors and bookshop owners who have "recognized themselves"—fiercely maintain to be a roman à clef. With the sleepy world of Oxford set into fretful motion by a world that never "existed," Dark Back of Time begins an odyssey into the nature of identity and of time. Marías weaves together autobiography, a legendary kingdom, strange ghostly literary figures, halls of mirrors, a one-eyed pilot, a curse in Havana, and a bullet lost in Mexico. "By far Spain's best writer today." —Roberto Bolaño "The most subtle and gifted writer in contemporary Spanish literature." — Boston Sunday Globe "Dazzling.... Javier Marías writes with elegance, with wit and with masterful suspense." — The Times Literary Supplement "Stylish, cerebral...Marías is a startling talent...His prose is ambitious, ironic, philosophical, and ultimately compassionate." — The New York Times JAVIER MARÍAS was born in Madrid in 1951. He has published fifteen novels, including The Infatuations and A Heart So White, as well as three collections of short stories and several volumes of essays. His work has been translated into forty-four languages, has sold more than eight and a half million copies worldwide, and has won a dazzling array of international literary awards, including the prestigious International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Prix Femina Étranger. He died in 2022. Translated by Margaret Jull Costa