Ana María Matute, one of Spain's most important novelists, recently observed that each author actually rewrites the same work through the continual elaboration of a few favorite subjects. This statement is particularly applicable to her own literature, with its limited number of themes and attitudes within a relatively large body of work. Time is one of these themes, and she explores it as a means of subtly transmitting her consistent literary philosophy.

Time is significant even as a simple plot element. The author endows her characters with an almost desperate awareness of the fleeting quality of the moment. The feeling appears most poignantly in the face of death, carrying with it an affirmation of life's values. (p. 282)

As if to emphasize the importance of the subject, Ana María Matute entitled her first collection of short stories El tiempo. The thematic basis of this book—the passage...