Eavesdroppers, failed bodyguards, night doctors, forgers, liars, suicides, assassins, and ghosts populate the dozen stories of When I Was Mortal. "In the space of ten or twenty pages," as the Nouvel Observateur remarked, "Marías contrives to write a novel." "The short story fits Marías like a glove," as Le Point noted, and these stories have been acclaimed as "formidably intelligent" (The London Review of Books); and "startling" (The New York Times Book Review); "a refreshing discovery... [they] should be welcomed here like a bracing tonic" (The Chicago Tribune).