Corazón tan blanco

About “Corazón tan blanco”

The novel by Javier Marías begins with a haunting scene in which a girl, no longer a child and recently returned from her wedding trip, enters a bathroom, removes her blouse and bra, and points a gun at her heart. The story then shifts to the narrator, who is newly married to Luisa and on his own honeymoon in Havana. From his hotel balcony, he sees a woman waiting on the street, and for a moment, he is mistaken for the person she is meeting. This encounter triggers a growing sense of unease about his marriage, leading him to suspect that the answer lies in the past, particularly in his father’s multiple marriages, which allowed him to be born. The narrator prefers not to know the truth, aware of the danger of uncovering secrets. The novel explores themes such as secrecy, marriage, murder, and the tension between speaking and silence. It has been widely translated and praised internationally.