«The Happy Marriage» is almost an autobiography, a very personal and candid account of the life of writer Enrique Sabas and his wife Margaret Cohen. Throughout the book, the author shifts the reader’s attention from the story of how the main characters met, and the happy and unhappy events of their marriage, to a description of the last days of Margaret’s life and Enrique’s feelings and thoughts in connection with his wife’s incurable illness. The novel spans a period of 30 years and tells what it means for two people to decide to spend their whole lives together and what a happy marriage really is.
Rafael Yglesias published his first novel at 18, and then, at 21, wrote three more books. Later he earned his living as a screenwriter, collaborating with such directors as Roman Polanski and Peter Weir, and left serious literature for a long time, returning to it after 13 long years, following the death of his wife Margaret.