The Penguin Podcast is back! Listen Now
While the Women are Sleeping

While the Women are Sleeping

Summary

Celebrated as one of the greatest writers of his time, Javier Marías is best known for his spy trilogy, Your Face Tomorrow, which has been compared to Proust and hailed as one of the great modern European novels. In his first short story collection for fifteen years, he brings together tales which span his entire writing career : haunting tales from the very edges of life.

An obscenely fat man obsessed with his much younger lover endlessly videotapes her every move, a ghost is condemned to repeatedly resign from his job, and a man of impeccable refinement meets his doppelganger at a work dinner, resulting in ghoulish life changes for both men.

Reviews

  • [Marias] has a rare ability to haunt the imaginations of his readers. He is more than just a storyteller - he's a manipulator of the psyche who can jolt his readers into new states of perception. Quite a feat for any writer
    New York Journal of Books

About the author

Javier Marías

Javier Marías was born in Madrid in 1951 and died in 2022. He published fifteen novels, three collections of short stories and several volumes of essays. His work has been translated into forty-three languages and has won a dazzling array of international literary awards, including the prestigious Dublin IMPAC award for A Heart So White. He held academic posts in Spain, the United States and in Britain, as Lecturer in Spanish Literature at Oxford University.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more