de Hériz, Enrique 1964-

PERSONAL:

Born 1964, in Barcelona, Spain. Education: Earned a university degree. Hobbies and other interests: Traveling, music, and the lives of magicians in the Victorian era.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Barcelona, Spain.

CAREER:

Writer, editor, and translator.

WRITINGS:

Historia del desorden, Seix Barral (Barcelona, Spain), 2000.

Mentira, Edhasa (Barcelona, Spain), 2004, translation by John Cullen published as Lies: A Novel, Nan A. Talese/Doubleday (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Enrique de Hériz was born and raised in Barcelona, Spain. He attended university, where he earned a degree in Spanish philology, then went on to work as a writer, editor, and translator. He has translated the work of numerous English-speaking authors into Spanish, including books by Annie Proulx, Nadine Gordimer, Stephen King, Peter Carey, and John Fowles. He is also the author of Lies: A Novel, which was published in Spain as Mentira. The story features Isabel Garcia Luna, an anthropologist who studies different death rituals as they are performed by cultures all over the world. However, life begins to catch up with Isabel, and when her husband begins to suffer from dementia, she feels as if she is trapped, forced to care for him and witness an entirely different type of death before her very eyes. Knowing his condition is worsening, Isabel resolves to allow herself one final research expedition away from civilization before her responsibilities require her to remain with her husband full time. However, while she is away, there is an accident, and through a series of events, a body from the expedition is reported as her own, leaving Isabel's family under the impression that she has died. Isabel suddenly finds herself experiencing death for herself in a surreal manner, as her family mourns her halfway around the world and she cannot reach them in order to correct the mistake. The situation enables Isabel to look at life from a different perspective—not only her own, but her ailing husband's, and that of his father, who was an influential man. Even as she does, her daughter Serena back home is practicing a death ritual for her mother, linking their lives and their experiences.

De Hériz has researched various cultures and death rites, as well as folk stories and history, in order to flesh out his story and provide readers with a rich cultural experience. Elinor Cook, in a review for the New Statesman, dubbed de Hériz's effort "a Russian doll of a novel, with story after story emerging from the one before," but found that the transition from anecdote to anecdote was not as smooth as it might have been. Debi Lewis, in a review for Booklist, called the result "captivating," and concluded: "This is a fascinating read, beautifully researched and exquisitely written." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly commented that the work is occasionally "melodramatic … but Isabel and Serena are engaging, and their various desperate measures are motivated and palpable."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 2007, Debi Lewis, review of Lies: A Novel, p. 61.

Library Journal, February 15, 2007, Lawrence Olszewski, review of Lies, p. 110.

New Statesman, February 19, 2007, Elinor Cook, "The Truth Will Out," p. 61.

New Yorker, June 4, 2007, review of Lies, p. 89.

Publishers Weekly, February 5, 2007, review of Lies, p. 40.

ONLINE

Orion Books Web site,http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/ (December 8, 2007), author profile.

Random House Web site,http://www.randomhouse.com/ (December 8, 2007), author profile.

Telepolis Web site,http://www.telepolis.com/ (December 8, 2007), Marta Pi Castelló, author profile, in Spanish.