Felipe Montero

Felipe Montero is a history teacher who is enticed by the generous salary of Senora Consuelo's job posting. His great dream is to produce a work which unifies all of the existing scholarship on the Spanish influence on the Americas into a single book. He hopes to save enough money while working on General Llorente's manuscript to be able to take time off from working and dedicate himself entirely to this personal project. He completed his studies at the Sorbonne in France, where he learned to speak French fluently. It was quite fortuitous that he happened to exactly fit the requirements for Senora Consuelo's job.

It is tempting to the read the novel as if Felipe were the one sane character in a story otherwise dominated by Senora Consuelo's insanity, but from the book's beginning it is difficult to understand his behavior from a rational perspective. It...