Dangerous Virtues

Ana Maria Moix is one of the most innovative and entertaining writers in Spain today.

Her writings include children's literature, poetry, novels, and short stories; her work has been praised throughout Europe and the Americas for its stylistic innovations, witty, satiric spirit, and feminist themes and fervor.

The five stories collected in "Dangerous Virtues" ("Las virtudes peligrosas"), each varying greatly in style and substance, are among Moix's most remarkable writings.

The title story is a mesmerizing account of the relationship between two beautiful women who communicate only by staring at each other. "Once upon a Time" is an ironical exploration of the unhappy life of characters from fairy tales and children's rhymes. "The Naive Man" tracks an insufferable young man's downward spiral into drunkenness.Other stories in the collection include "The Problem," a comic tour de force about the troubled sexual relations between a bickering married couple, and "The Dead", the chilling self-analysis of a young wife whose thoughts reveal her weakening grasp of everyday reality.

Sophisticated and unfailingly original, all of the stories are instantly accessible and absorbing. "Dangerous Virtues" is the English-language debut of this collection of stories from a fascinating contemporary writer.

Margaret E. W. Jones is a professor of Spanish at the University of Kentucky and the author of "Spanish Literature: A Brief Survey" and "The Contemporary Spanish Novel".

She is also the translator of Esther Tusquets' "The Same Sea as Every Summer" (Nebraska 1990) for which she won the Kayden National Translation Award.