Marcos

Marcos is the main character of the novel. At the novel’s start, Marcos is living in his “fairly isolated” country home by himself (27). Not long prior to the narrative present, Marcos’s son Leo died in his sleep. Because Leo was young and because Marcos was the one who “tucked him in,” Marcos is plagued by guilt and grief (72). His wife Cecilia has been similarly incapable of healing from her sorrow, and has thus “gone to live with her mother” (5). Although Marcos does not think that “he still misses” Cecilia, the resulting “emptiness in the house” keeps him awake and “troubles him” (5). Throughout the early chapters of Part I, Marcos’s time in the house is limited to sleeping, drinking tea, and checking on the female after her arrival in Chapter 4. Ever since his son’s death and his wife’s departure, the space has not felt...