{"product_id":"9780811225700","title":"Because She Never Asked (New Directions Pearls)","description":"\u003cp\u003eA novella—half joke and half nightmare— by \"Spain's most significant contemporary literary figure\" (\u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e)\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBecause She Never Asked \u003c\/em\u003eis a story reminiscent of that reached by the travelers in Patricia Highsmith's \u003cem\u003eStranger on a Train\u003c\/em\u003e. The author first writes a piece for the artist Sophie Calle to live out: a young, aspiring, French artist travels to Lisbon and the Azores in pursuit of an older artist whose work she’s in love with. The second part of the story tells what happens between the author and Calle. She eludes, him; he becomes blocked, and suffers physical collapse.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“Something strange happened along the way,” Vila-Matas wrote. “Normally, writers try to pass a work of fiction off as being real. But in\u003cem\u003e Because She Never Asked\u003c\/em\u003e, the opposite occurred: in order to give meaning to the story of my life, I found that I needed to present it as fiction.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47118490894576,"sku":"9780811225700","price":10.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780811225700_p0.jpg?v=1763739762","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780811225700","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}