Daniel, A Heart So White must be one of my all-time favourite novels!!! How funny you’ve mentioned it.

It’s truly fantastic -or so my 16 year self at the time thought, to the point that I was converted to Javier Marias on the spot and have read almost every one of his books. I believe the translation should be by Margaret Jull Costa, who has translated almost every Marias’ novel into English. She is brilliant at capturing that love for language and long existential/philosophical ramblings that are so intrinsic to Maria’s work.

Aside from that, another novel that I often recomend to people is City of Wonders by Eduardo Mendoza (another favourite writer), which is a love letter to Barcelona and explores the period of is set towards the end of the XIX century. Mendoza is a rather witty writer and while in this novel there are hints of his trademark humour, his talent to capture and describe the people who make a place really are outstanding.

I don’t know who may have translated it into English, but hope they’ve done it justice as like Marias, the thing I love about Mendoza is his use of language.