The Penguin Podcast is back! Listen Now
Venice, An Interior

Venice, An Interior

Summary

An essential companion for every traveller to Venice, this is the hidden city revealed in a gorgeous non-fiction account by one of Europe's greatest living writers, Javier Marías

Century after century, the essence of Venice is unchanging. It is a place of contradictions, equal parts glamour and chaos. As a young man, Javier Marías made the city his home; since then he has left and returned many times, drawn back to its labyrinth of blind alleys, its pearly green canals, its imagined spaces.

His love affair with the city has lasted over thirty years - he has traced every inch of its endless interior, has lived among the Venetians and lived apart from them. In Venice, An Interior, Marías sets out to uncover the heart of this strange and enchanting place.

Reviews

  • Publisher's description. A spell-binding literary journey through the ancient and timeless maze of Venice. With characteristic thoughtfulness and elegance, Marías captures this city of contradictions, where glamour and squalor are layered one atop the other, and the truly native Venetians are a rare and elusive tribe.
    Penguin

About the author

Javier Marías

Javier Marías was born in Madrid in 1951 and died in 2022. He published fifteen novels, three collections of short stories and several volumes of essays. His work has been translated into forty-three languages and has won a dazzling array of international literary awards, including the prestigious Dublin IMPAC award for A Heart So White. He held academic posts in Spain, the United States and in Britain, as Lecturer in Spanish Literature at Oxford University.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more