Your Face Tomorrow – Fever and Spear V 1 (New Directions Books)

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Extremely hard to read, as every sentence is beautifully crafted but to the point of being over-written and elaborate, often piling on a series of repetitions; as an example (which could actually be referring to large parts of the book) As a result it was I think only on my 4th attempt that I did not abandon this book part way through - something that I almost never do with the 100 or so books I read a year.

Ateş ve Mızrak alt başlıklı ilk ciltte Tüm Ruhlar'ın isimsiz baş karakteri, Jacques Deza olarak daha yaşlı ve eşinden ayrılmış bir adam olarak Londra'ya geri dönüyor. Deza BBC'de çalışırken yine Tüm Ruhlar kitabından aşina olduğumuz Peter Wheeler sayesinde bir istihbarat grubu için çalışmaya başlıyor. Buradaki görevi işvereninin istediği kişilerin karakterlerini gözlemlemek ve analiz etmek. Hatta bundan fazlasını yapıyor Deza, insanların gelecekteki davranışlarını tahmin etmeye çalışıyor. Pero en realidad, más bien —en la práctica—, le interesé y me tomó como intérprete de vidas, según su expresión solemne y sus desmesuradas expectativas. Sería mejor dejarlo en traductor o intérprete de las personas: de sus conductas y reacciones, de sus inclinaciones y caracteres y sus capacidades de aguante; de su maleabilidad y su sumisión, de sus voluntades desmayadas o firmes, sus inconstancias, sus límites, sus inocencias, su falta de escrúpulos y su resistencia; de sus posibles grados de lealtad o vileza y sus calculables precios y sus venenos y sus tentaciones; y también de sus deducibles historias, no pasadas sino venideras, las que aún no habían ocurrido y podían por tanto impedirse. O bien podían fraguarse. Wordy and in no rush to move ahead, Fever and Spear isn't your typical spy-thriller, but what there is is tantalizing enough. Es Wheeler quien va a introducir a Deza en un oscuro grupo, vagamente vinculado al MI6, en el que un puñado de personas que tienen el mismo don que ambos, Deza y Wheeler, prestan no se sabe bien qué servicios —sospechosamente bien pagados— a no se sabe quién. ¿En qué consiste ese misterioso don? A medio camino entre la sobrenatural capacidad de leer el alma —¿o es quizá la mente?— de otras personas y simplemente tener buenas dotes de observación y una intuición bien afinada, los integrantes de este grupo son capaces, o creen serlo, de predecir cómo se comportarán en el futuro o ante determinadas circunstancias (“¿podría este hombre capaz de matar si se viera amenazado?” o “¿será aquella mujer capaz de mantener un secreto bajo presión?” o más simplemente “¿está diciendo la verdad este influyente personaje?”) sujetos a los que entrevistan, estudian en vídeos o con los incluso coinciden en una cena organizada a tal efecto. Si se piensa con detenimiento, es un don de lo más literario.Beneath Dance and Dream, one feels, is a medieval view of the world being subtly urged upon us, though it is in no sense religious. There remains in Jaime, right beside his taste for the lingerie of the 50s, a longing for courtliness, which, observed today, might save us from some of the worst aspects of ourselves. On the other hand, a knowledge of history makes Jaime grimly aware of the venality and violence rising to the surface of our lives now. And in this most beautifully tapped ancient vein of horror, Marías scales another peak, that of a deep, almost shamefully exciting lyricism of threat. Keeping an eye on that arch-enemy of his, who is about to snort coke in the "cripples' toilet" of a London nightclub, a place where violence of the fist or the gun might be expected, a sword, a huge menacing sword of the past, is produced: "It is the sword that caused most deaths throughout most centuries - it has killed at close quarters ... face to face with the person killed, without the murderer or the avenger or the avenged detaching himself from the sword while he wreaks his havoc and plunges it in and cuts and slices, all with the same blade which he never discards, but holds on to and grips even harder while he pierces, mutilates, skewers and even dismembers ... unlike something that can be thrown or hurled, the sword can strike again and stab repeatedly, over and over, again and again, each strike more vicious than the last ..." One should never tell anyone anything or give information or pass on stories or make people remember beings who have never existed or trodden the earth or traversed the world, or who, having done so, are now almost safe in uncertain, one-eyed oblivion. Telling is almost always done as a gift, even when the story contains and injects some poison, it is also a bond, a granting of trust, and rare is the trust or confidence that is not sooner or later betrayed, rare is the close bond that does not grow twisted or knotted and, in the end, become so tangled that a razor or knife is needed to cut it.

It's unclear where the trilogy is going, but there's promise enough here to leave the reader eager for more.

Throughout the volume, Jacques frequently refers to the expression "don't tell or hear anything", which is derived from the wartime propaganda campaign: "Careless talk costs lives." This is a mandate to remain silent: Por aquel entonces ya había comenzado a “cambiar de registro”, descubriendo nuevos tipos de literatura (nuevos para mí, quiero decir). En cierto modo era una especie de rebeldía adolescente, una forma de renegar de mis orígenes, aunque para ello tuviera que “traicionar” a mi autor más querido. Pero uno siempre vuelve a sus raíces y, tras leer recientemente Berta Isla y Así empieza lo malo, era el momento de sumergirme de nuevo en la inmensa Tu rostro mañana. This has nothing to do with premonitions, there is nothing supernatural or mysterious about it, what’s mysterious is that we pay no heed to it. And the explanation must be a simple one, since it is something shared by so many: it is simply that we know, but hate knowing; we cannot bear to see.