When I Was Mortal

A collection of chilling tales, ironic, unsettling, imbued with dread and with droll humour

A dapper Paris doctor dispenses a treatment for dissatisfied wives. A mother auditions for her first porn movie. A writer working on a study of pain makes himself the subject of his experiments. A voyeur mistakes a murderer for a fellow peeping tom … these are some of the characters observed by the narrator of these chilling stories. Ironic, unsettling, imbued with dread and with droll humour, Javier Marias’ short tales cast a shrewd, sardonic eye on humanity.