As one of Spain's most celebrated novelists, his books have been translated into forty-six languages and sold close to nine million copies internationally.

[12] Marías spent parts of his childhood in the United States, where his father taught at various institutions, including Yale University and Wellesley College.

[15] His first literary employment consisted of translating Dracula scripts for his maternal uncle, Jesús Franco.

[20] The novel is dedicated to the Spanish author Juan Benet, who managed to compel the publisher Edhasa [es] to print the book, and to Vicente Molina Foix, who provided him with the title.

[21][22] His translations included work by Updike, Hardy, Conrad, Nabokov, Faulkner, James, Stevenson, and Browne.

Fiebre y lanza (Your Face Tomorrow 1: Fever and Spear), the first part of a trilogy which was his most ambitious literary project.

The first volume is dominated by a translator, an elderly don based on an actual professor emeritus of Spanish studies at Oxford University, Sir Peter Russell.

[33] He also was a regular contributor to El País, whose editor-in-chief Pepa Bueno lamented his death and called it a sad day for Spanish literature.

[36] Marías's novel, Todas las almas (All Souls), included a portrayal of the poet John Gawsworth, who was also the third King of Redonda.

This course of events was chronicled in his "false novel," Negra espalda del tiempo (Dark Back of Time).

[citation needed] Marías created a literary prize, the Premio Reino de Redonda to be judged by the dukes and duchesses.

[42] In addition to prize money, the winners, listed below, received a duchy: Marías died of pneumonia caused by Covid-19 in Madrid on 11 September 2022, at the age of 70.

[51][7][8][52] The Spanish novelist Eduardo Mendoza remembered him as the best writer in Spain at the time of his death,[4] and one who wrote female characters the best.