"The Count" is a story in which Magris captures the anger of the sailor who accompanies a disturbing "corpse fisherman" as they sail down the Duero River in a pious search for those who have met their end in those waters. The arrogant personality of the count contrasts with the resigned loneliness of the sailor, which Magris outlines poetically by evoking the harshness of his adventures as a sailor, while a melancholic tenderness emerges in the memory of the woman he loved and lost. "The Voices" is a brief monologue in which the true protagonist is the human voice, transmitted through an answering machine whose voice the protagonist listens to obsessively, emphasizing each inflection, accent, silence, to decipher the immense inner world that lies behind that seemingly ethereal image. In "The Porter's Lodge" and the play "To Have Already Existed," we appreciate Magris' ability to evoke...read more
