‘The Infatuations’

Toward the end of last year, Javier Marías was awarded a prestigious Spanish literary prize and the €20,000 that came with it, both of which he had no hesitation in refusing.

His reasons were simple. All his life, he said, he has avoided state institutions and refused to accept any income from the public purse. “I don’t want to be seen as an author who is favoured by any particular government.”

Noble – and unusual – as Marías’s sentiments surely are, he was nevertheless keen to point out that h...