Dedication: Para Marlene y mis hijos con todo mi amor y, por supuesto, para Nicolás
[For Marlene and my children with all my love and, of course, for Nicolás]
Epigraph: ...Todo lo que usted quiera, si señor, pero son las palabras las que cantan, las que suben y bajan... Me prosterno ante ellas... las amo, las adhiero, las persigo, las muerdo, las derrito.. Amo tantas las palabras... Las inesperadas... las que glotonamente se esperan, se acechan, hasta que de pronto caen... Vocablos amados... Brillan como piedras de colores, saltan como platinados peces, son espuma, hilo, metal, rocío...
– Pablo Neruda (Confieso que he vivido - Memorias)
[Everything you want, yes sir, but it's the words that sing, that rise and fall... I bow before them... I love them, follow them, pursue them, bite them, am crazy about them... I love so many words... the unexpected ones, those greedily anticipated; they lurk, then suddenly drop... Beloved words... They shine like coloured stones, leap like platinum fish, they are foam, thread, metal, dew... ]
The narrator relates a conversation with an aging professor of philosophy, now resident in an institution for the insane, who speculates on the processes of thinking, the independence of words, and the illusion of time.
The narrator tells the story of his grandmother Lucia, a trapeze artist and keeper of a private zoo, and his grandfather Nicanor Buenaventura.
The narrator is suspected of murder or kidnapping, following the mysterious disappearance of a friend.
The story recounts the thoughts and feelings of a wife and husband whose relationship has lost its meaning.
Told in the first person, this is an autobiographical narrative of a cocker spaniel who, although born in Australia, learned to bark in both Spanish and English ['aunque nací en Australia, yo aprendí a ladrar en español y en inglés'... (p. 145)]. The narrative concludes with 'Balú' reaching old age, and his life ending with an injection. 'Hoy soy sólo un recuerdo perruno que seguirá viviendo en ustedes' [Now I'm just a canine memory that will continue to live in you (p. 151)].
