In Her Absence - Paperback

by Antonio Munoz Molina (Author)

"[A] translucent novel of passion, illusion and social class....slyly witty and luminous."
--Francine Prose in O, The Oprah Magazine

During working hours, Mario is a dutiful bureaucrat, scrupulously earning his paycheck as an employee of the provincial Spanish town where he lives. But when he walks through the door of his apartment, he is transformed into the impassioned lover of Blanca, the beautiful, inscrutable wife he saved from the brink of personal crisis. For the love of Blanca, Mario eats sushi and carpaccio, nods in feigned understanding at experimental films, sits patiently through long conversations with her avant-garde friends, and conceals his disgust at shocking art exhibits.

Then, little by little, a strange and ominous threat begins to weigh on the marriage.

How can love survive its own disappearance? The desperate answer that Antonio Muñoz Molina proposes in this short, circular novella is a model of literary strategy and style, a splendid homage to Flaubert.

Author Biography

Antonio Muñoz Molina

Antonio Muñoz Molina was born in Spain in 1956. His thirteen books, including Sepharad and Winter in Lisbon have won two Premio Nacional de Literatura prizes and marked him as one of Spain's most important living writers. He resides in New York City, where he is the director of the Cervantes Institute.

Esther Allen

Esther Allen, codirector of PEN World Voices, has translated the work of José Martí, Alma Guillermoprieto, Juan Bonilla, and Jorge Luis Borges. A former NEA Fellow and Fulbright grant recipient, she lives in New York City.