Javier Marias garlanded in literary prizes, tipped as a future Nobel winner, the Spanish author is also hugely popular, having sold more than 5.5m copies of his work in 39 languages. His ingenious, idiosyncratic use of narrative forms and his ability to juggle plots, digressions, characters and styles at an almost hypnotic narrative pace confirm Marías' stature as one of the top contemporary European novelists. In 2006 he was elected a member of the Real Academia Española. His latest work, Your Face Tomorrow, has been hailed as one of the great literary achievements of our age.