Ana María Moix

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.