Solitude

The reader learns in the book's introduction and prologue that its author Adolfo Bioy Casares focused upon man's solitude for the main theme of many of his books including his first and most successful novella, "The Invention of Morel." The book begins with the protagonist who is never named alone on the Island of Villings. The man is a fugitive from justice and fled there at the suggestion of a rug merchant he met in Calcutta. The merchant told the man that the Island of Villings was abandoned by its inhabitants years before after they had constructed some large buildings. There is a dreadful disease connected with the island, so deadly that not even pirates will venture ashore. However, since the main character is so desperate to escape imprisonment, he opts to take his chances on the dangerous island.

Although the reader never learns what crime the man...