Berta Isla, even from her school years in 1960s Madrid under Franco's dictatorship, had already decided she would marry Tom Nevinson-the handsome, half-Spanish, half-English classmate with an incredible gift for languages. This talent, combined with his equally remarkable ability to mimic others, would eventually attract the attention of the British secret services during his time at Oxford. Tom would try to resist getting involved with them-until one day, one "stupid day," he makes the fatal mistake that will shape the lives of both of them...
Berta Isla is the story of a couple bound together early on by passion and determination-the chronicle of a relationship marked, decade after decade, by secrets and lies. It is also a story about people who, while wishing to save the world, end up exiled from it.
A gripping novel full of twists by the award-winning Spanish author. A spy story about lost opportunities, which also places under the microscope a marriage built on the art of pretending and withholding.
"Berta Isla leaves behind the clichés of the spy thriller, while retaining the suspense found in the best books of the genre. Marías writes a story that draws us into some of literature's greatest and most unsolvable themes-knowledge and love, espionage and its consequences, loss and death." - The Irish Times
"Like most of Marías's novels, Berta Isla revolves around ideas of what we know and do not want to know, what we do not know and cannot know, and the nuances and difficulties of true communication." - TLS
"A riveting story that places the concepts of truth and morality under unrelenting scrutiny." - The Guardian
