The final, and the most powerful, part of Javier Marias’s monumental trilogy. Together the three volumes constitute one of the great novels in modern European literature… this important book is a triumph, both in the original and in this translation
Antony Beevor, Sunday Telegraph

The final, and the most powerful, part of Javier Marias’s monumental trilogy. Together the three volumes constitute one of the great novels in modern European literature… this important book is a triumph, both in the original and in this translation
Antony Beevor, Sunday Telegraph

This is indeed one of the most remarkable novels of our time, utterly compelling, as addictive as Proust .. Marias blends fact and fiction seamlessly. He is marvellously observant and also inventive … The world looks different, people speak and act differently after you have read his work… Your Face Tomorrow is one of the great works of modern European fiction
Allan Massie, The Scotsman

This is indeed one of the most remarkable novels of our time, utterly compelling, as addictive as Proust .. Marias blends fact and fiction seamlessly. He is marvellously observant and also inventive … The world looks different, people speak and act differently after you have read his work… Your Face Tomorrow is one of the great works of modern European fiction
Allan Massie, The Scotsman

Those who have followed Your face tomorrow through its first two volumes will find its conclusion,‘Poison, Shadow and Farewell’, mesmerising. They will surely feel that it has been one of the defining reading experiences of their life and look forward to starting all over again
Literary Review

Those who have followed Your face tomorrow through its first two volumes will find its conclusion,‘Poison, Shadow and Farewell’, mesmerising. They will surely feel that it has been one of the defining reading experiences of their life and look forward to starting all over again
Literary Review

Your Face Tomorrow is a remarkable achievement, suspenseful and revelatory
Chris Power, The Times

Your Face Tomorrow is a remarkable achievement, suspenseful and revelatory
Chris Power, The Times

[Marias] continues his adept weaving of the contemporary narrative into his exhaustively minute and evocative explorations of recent European history
Alex Clark, New Statesman

[Marias] continues his adept weaving of the contemporary narrative into his exhaustively minute and evocative explorations of recent European history
Alex Clark, New Statesman

Certainly a very powerful writer
Alison Riberio de Menezes, Irish Times

Certainly a very powerful writer
Alison Riberio de Menezes, Irish Times

Marias is simply astonishing…even more gripping than its predecessors...Your Face Tomorrow seems to me unparalleled in literature
Times Literary Supplement, Ali Smith

Marias is simply astonishing…even more gripping than its predecessors...Your Face Tomorrow seems to me unparalleled in literature
Times Literary Supplement, Ali Smith

One of the most remarkable and in certain respects puzzling novels of our time: remarkable in its high intelligence, style and ambition; puzzling in the way it blurs fact and fiction... A delightfully comic writer
Allan Massie, Standpoint

One of the most remarkable and in certain respects puzzling novels of our time: remarkable in its high intelligence, style and ambition; puzzling in the way it blurs fact and fiction... A delightfully comic writer
Allan Massie, Standpoint

Thrilling stuff
Sam Leith, Daily Mail

Thrilling stuff
Sam Leith, Daily Mail

Any year that sees the publication of a novel that one can unhesitatingly judge to be great, belonging to the same demanding but rewarding company as Proust, Conrad and Thomas Mann, is a food one. It’s a bold claim to make but I have no doubt that the Your Face Tomorrow trilogy by Javier Marias comes in that category .. wonderfully intelligent, often disturbing, witty and richly ironic
Allan Massie, The Scotsman Books of the Year

Any year that sees the publication of a novel that one can unhesitatingly judge to be great, belonging to the same demanding but rewarding company as Proust, Conrad and Thomas Mann, is a food one. It’s a bold claim to make but I have no doubt that the Your Face Tomorrow trilogy by Javier Marias comes in that category .. wonderfully intelligent, often disturbing, witty and richly ironic
Allan Massie, The Scotsman Books of the Year

Definitely the most exciting and exquisitely observed work of European fiction for some time
Antony Beevor, Seven Magazine, Sunday Telegraph Books of the Year

Definitely the most exciting and exquisitely observed work of European fiction for some time
Antony Beevor, Seven Magazine, Sunday Telegraph Books of the Year

A tour de force, a novel of ideas, rich in allusions and allegory
The Economist

A tour de force, a novel of ideas, rich in allusions and allegory
The Economist

Possesses an astonishing tension which makes it hard to put down… it is probably the most powerful and important novel to appear in European literature for some time
Antony Beevor, Guardian

Possesses an astonishing tension which makes it hard to put down… it is probably the most powerful and important novel to appear in European literature for some time
Antony Beevor, Guardian

Javier Marias’s incomparably strange and brilliant trilogy… quite unlike anything else today… Your Face Tomorrow is both an inquisitive novel of ideas and a troubling piece of espionage fiction… It deserves to be recognised as one of the finest novels of modern times
Tim Martin, Daily Telegraph

Javier Marias’s incomparably strange and brilliant trilogy… quite unlike anything else today… Your Face Tomorrow is both an inquisitive novel of ideas and a troubling piece of espionage fiction… It deserves to be recognised as one of the finest novels of modern times
Tim Martin, Daily Telegraph

And with this triumphant finale – the longest and best of all three – it becomes impossible to resist the thought that this deeply strange creation…may very well be the first authentic literary masterpiece of the 21st century
James Lasdun, The Guardian

And with this triumphant finale – the longest and best of all three – it becomes impossible to resist the thought that this deeply strange creation…may very well be the first authentic literary masterpiece of the 21st century
James Lasdun, The Guardian

Like so much of Marías’s extraordinary writing, it is unforgettable
Margaret Drabble, Times Literary Supplement

Like so much of Marías’s extraordinary writing, it is unforgettable
Margaret Drabble, Times Literary Supplement

This novel… crowns Marias’s trilogy and his translator’s lively English rendering of it with narrative honour
John Spurling, The Sunday Times

This novel… crowns Marias’s trilogy and his translator’s lively English rendering of it with narrative honour
John Spurling, The Sunday Times

Possibly the most powerful of the series
Louise Welsh, Financial Times

Possibly the most powerful of the series
Louise Welsh, Financial Times

This final part of an astounding trilogy confirms his Your Face Tomorrow sequence – translated with supreme skill by Margaret Jull Costa – as one of the most original achievements in recent fiction. Baroque, beguiling, at home in the twilight zones of love and politics alike, these deviously epic yarns of espionage and secrecy lift the spying game to metaphysical heights, and plunge into psychological depths…mesmeric prose…
Boyd Tonkin, The Independent

This final part of an astounding trilogy confirms his Your Face Tomorrow sequence – translated with supreme skill by Margaret Jull Costa – as one of the most original achievements in recent fiction. Baroque, beguiling, at home in the twilight zones of love and politics alike, these deviously epic yarns of espionage and secrecy lift the spying game to metaphysical heights, and plunge into psychological depths…mesmeric prose…
Boyd Tonkin, The Independent

The book’s spellbinding effect lies in the way that the ceaseless waves of words wash in and out of the reader’s attention. Though it is not entirely free-standing and needs to be read in sequence, it crowns Maria’s trilogy with narrative honour.
John Spurling, The Sunday Times

The book’s spellbinding effect lies in the way that the ceaseless waves of words wash in and out of the reader’s attention. Though it is not entirely free-standing and needs to be read in sequence, it crowns Maria’s trilogy with narrative honour.
John Spurling, The Sunday Times

There are some hypnotically powerful scenes’
Sally Cousins, The Telegraph

There are some hypnotically powerful scenes’
Sally Cousins, The Telegraph

Within a loose, extended political context, Javier Marias’ Proustian trilogy, Your Face Tomorrow presents a man’s thoughts punctuated with hypnotic episodes of measured violence. Breathtaking for more reasons than one.
Susan Rice, Sunday Herald, Christmas round up

Within a loose, extended political context, Javier Marias’ Proustian trilogy, Your Face Tomorrow presents a man’s thoughts punctuated with hypnotic episodes of measured violence. Breathtaking for more reasons than one.
Susan Rice, Sunday Herald, Christmas round up

The best fiction I read... three riveting volumes of looping (and sometimes loopy) meditation on the memory of war and the corruption of violence
Roy Foster, Times Literary Supplement, Christmas round up

The best fiction I read... three riveting volumes of looping (and sometimes loopy) meditation on the memory of war and the corruption of violence
Roy Foster, Times Literary Supplement, Christmas round up

William Smith 17 June 2010

Javier Marias’s ‘novel in three volumes’ Your Face Tomorrow is no mean undertaking. Always intriguing, at times infuriating, but ultimately rewarding, it details the entanglement of Jacques Deza, a Spaniard living in London, with an obscure intelligence agency.
Despite the references to James Bond creator Ian Fleming, this is no espionage romp. The situations Deza encounters are less glamorous and exotic than awkward and exasperating. Deza himself, although educated and urbane, is pompous and, on occasion, something of a letch. This flawed hero adds yet more ambiguity to an affair riddled with hidden agendas. Deza’s boss – or spymaster – is the enigmatic Bertram Tupra, an irresistible smooth operator. His words and actions have a dizzying effect on Deza, forcing the exiled divorcee to question his moral assumptions.
Marias’s meandering reflections on life, death and truth can prove challenging. He has said in interview ‘I progress as I digress,’ which could perhaps be used by readers as an encouraging mantra during the denser passages, but perseverance is rewarded. By turns affecting, shocking and thought provoking, and veined with a wry humour, Your Face Tomorrrow is an unforgettable experience.