Javier Marías was a novelist considered by many to be the greatest living Spanish writer.
- Died: September 11, 2022 (Who else died on September 11?)
- Details of death: Died at his home in Madrid of pneumonia at the age of 70.
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Writing career
Marías was just 20 years old when his first novel, “Los Dominios del Lobo” (“Dominions of the Wolf”), was published. He went on to write 16 more novels, as well as a number of novellas and short stories. Among his most widely known works were “Corazón tan blanco” (“A Heart So White”) and the three-part epic “Tu rostro mañana” (“Your Heart Tomorrow”). Marías was honored with awards including the Nelly Sachs Prize and the Prix Formentor, and he was often considered to be a top candidate for a Nobel Prize in Literature. His most recent novel was 2021’s “Tomás Nevinson.” Marías was also known for his translations of other authors’ works. He won the Fray Luis de León Translation Award for his translation of Laurence Sterne’s “Tristram Shandy,” and he also translated works by authors including John Updike and Henry James.
King Xavier I
In 1997, Marías was reportedly named King of the Kingdom of Redonda, a whimsical title passed down through a line of authors for decades. Redonda is a tiny, uninhabited Caribbean island that was declared a kingdom by author M.P. Shiel in the 1920s. Marías was one of several who claimed the kingship, and he conferred the titles of duke and duchess onto friends and those he admired, including filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and author A.S. Byatt. He established an annual literary prize to be judged by the Kingdom of Redonda’s nobles, with winners including Ray Bradbury and Umberto Eco.
Notable quote
“I start writing with a compass. I don’t have a map. I just have a compass. So I’m heading north, as it were. I know more or less where I would like to go, but I don’t know the way, not at all. And I don’t even know whether I shall find a desert in the middle or a cliff, or a river, or a jungle, or what. I must cross them as I find them. Whereas the one with a map knows that he will find the jungle and the desert and the cliff—but he knows beforehand, and he knows very well when and how.” —from a 2018 interview for the Millions
Tributes to Javier Marías
Full obituary: The New York Times
