The tenant - Javier Cercas

The Tenantand The Motiveare two darkly humorous novellas from the award-winning author of Soldiers of Salamis. The Tenantis the mischievous story of Mario Rota, a linguistics professor whose life starts to unravel after he twists his ankle while out jogging one day. A rival professor appears, takes over his classes and bewitches his girlfriend. Where will Rota's nightmare end - and where did it begin? The Motiveis a satire about a writer, lvaro, who becomes obsessed with finding the ideal inspiration for his novel. First he begins spying on his neighbours, then he starts leading them on, creating a reversal of the maxim that art follows life - with some dire consequences. Written with a supremely light touch, these witty novellas are enjoyable masterpieces that linger long in the memory.

Javier Cercas is the author of novels, stories and essays. His novel Soldiers of Salamis has sold over 500,000 copies in Spain, been filmed and has been published in twenty languages. He lives in Girona, where he teaches Spanish Literature at the University.

'Javier Cercas is one of the hottest properties in contemporary Spanish fiction … Cercas is a superficially humorous and profoundly disturbing author. In his novels, reality is less convincing than fiction and fantasy never stranger than truth'
Amanda Hopkinson, Observer

'Both funny and sinister … The Motive is a small comic masterpiece with a satisfyingly bleak ending … It is a pleasure to read such original, haunting stories in which so much is said with such wit and insight and above all with such refreshing economy'
Anne Chisholm, Sunday Telegraph

'Light, clever and enjoyable … assured and accomplished'
Allan Massie, Daily Telegraph

'Javier Cercas has some twisty Nabokovian fun with the plot … the stories convey a sense of a novelist at play'
Financial Times