The two novels explored in this chapter, Todas las almas (1989) (All Souls, 1992) and Negra espalda del tiempo (1998) (Dark Back of Time, 2001), are two of the most intimately linked of all of Marías's works of fiction. This intimacy obtains on many levels, even though nine years passed between the publication of the two works, and despite the fact that Marías wrote two other novels in the intervening period, Corazón tan blanco (1992) (A Heart So White, 1995) and Mañana en la batalla piensa en mí (1994) (Tommorow in the Battle Think on Me, 1996). To a large extent, Marías wrote Negra to set the record straight about statements he had seen in reviews and essays concerning the referential base of Todas in general, as well as comments from acquaintances about its overall autobiographical nature. Thus he sets out in Negra to clarify certain aspects of Todas that readers had misconstrued, to expand upon characters and ideas that were left ambiguous or incomplete, and to introduce new information that bears upon certain events and locations represented in the earlier novel. Additionally, he creates large sections in the novel that have little or nothing to do with Oxford and the cast of characters from Todas.

Marías also lays out a series of theoretical principles and queries about fiction in Negra that stand as complex and purposefully contradictory declarations of intention about the art of novel-writing and the nature of reading.