Thus Bad Begins (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781101911914)

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - From the award-winning author of The Infatuations comes the mesmerizing story of a couple living in the shadow of a mysterious, unhappy history--a novel about the cruel, tender punishments we exact on those we love.

"A literary mystery ... calls to mind Paul Auster, Donna Tartt, and Carlos Ruiz Zaf; purely as literature, it feels like an heir to the searching human nuance of the novels of Gabriel Garc僘 M疵quez ... Javier Mar僘s is the real deal ... Mesmerizing." --USA Today

Madrid, 1980. Juan de Vere, nearly finished with his university degree, takes a job as personal assistant to Eduardo Muriel, an eccentric, once-successful film director. Urbane, discreet, irreproachable, Muriel is an irresistible idol to the young man. But Muriel's voluptuous wife, Beatriz, inhabits their home like an unwanted ghost; and on the periphery of their lives is Dr. Jorge Van Vechten, a family friend implicated in unsavory rumors that Muriel now asks Juan to investigate. As Juan draws closer to the truth, he uncovers only more questions. What is at the root of Muriel's hostility toward his wife? How did Beatriz meet Van Vechten? What happened during the war? Mar僘s leads us deep into the intrigues of these characters, through a daring exploration of rancor, suspicion, loyalty, trust, and the infinitely permeable boundaries between the deceptions perpetrated on us by others and those we inflict upon ourselves.

Author: Javier Mar僘s
ISBN-10: 1101911913
ISBN-13: 9781101911914
Publisher: Vintage
Language: English
Published: 11/14/2017
Pages: 464
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.92lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.30w x 1.00d