The writing of Felipe Benitez Reyes, a significant contributor to the Spanish Postmodern esthetic, speaks to issues of voice, persona, and the possibilities of fiction. Probable Lives won the 1996 National Book Award in Spain, the 1996 National Critics' Award in Spain, and the City of Melilla International Prize. A book of heteronyms, the character-poets in Probable Lives read as forgotten or unknown twentieth-century authors, all "rediscovered" and compiled by an anthologist who is also the creation of Reyes. Probable Lives tweaks the notion of identity in ways that are both engaging and downright funny.

Chaves Nogales met Juan Belmonte shortly before publishing this book, and, even though he was not a bullfighting aficionado, the two men hit it off immediately. His warmth, fighting spirit, and conciliatory mood, rare in Spanish society at the time, were some of the qualities that attracted the author and inspired him to write the famous bullfighter's biography. In the narration, the voices of the biographer and the subject blend together, so that it is difficult to discern when one begins to speak and the other stops, and this style makes Belmonte's memories unravel with astonishing ease: his infancy in Seville, the difficult years dedicated to learning, the picturesque aspects of the bullfighting and literary circles, fame, his rivalry with Joselito. This is the acute and faithful testimonial of an era, a masterpiece resulting from the encounter between two extraordinary people: Juan Belmonte, founder of modern bullfighting, and Chaves Nogales, one of the most important Spanish journalists of the first half of the twentieth century. "Chaves Nogales habia conocido a Juan Belmonte poco tiempo antes de la publicacion del libro y, aunque no era aficionado a los toros, los dos hombres congeniaron enseguida. La calidad humana del personaje, su espiritu de superacion y su talante conciliador, raro en la crispada sociedad espanola de la epoca, fueron algunas de las cualidades que atrajeron al autor y que le animaron a escribir una biografia del famoso torero. En la narracion las voces de biografo y biografiado se mezclan, sin que se sepa donde empieza a hablar uno y donde acaba el otro, y fruto de este genial planteamiento los recuerdos de Belmonte se suceden con asombrosa naturalidad: su infancia sevillana, los anos de durisimo aprendizaje, el pintoresquismo de los circulos taurinos y literarios, la fama, su rivalidad con Joselito. Este es el testimonio agudo y fiel de una epoca, una obra maestra fruto del encuentro entre dos personas extraordinarias: Juan Belmonte, fundador del toreo moderno, y Chaves Nogales, uno de los periodistas espanoles mas importantes de la primera mitad del siglo XX."