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Adolfa Bioy Casares. La invención de Morel. 1940. 91 pp.

A fugitive arrives on a desert island. A group of people periodically appear there and play "Tea for Two" loudly on a phonograph. He hides out from them at first, secretly admiring a young woman named Faustine. He gradually realizes they cannot see him, and essays various explanations. Then the mystery is revealed as "Morel's Invention." This is the plot the Borges calls perfect in his preface.

This is the first I've read in Spanish for this project, and one of my favorites of the first 15. Novels permit a kind of continuity of attention that I cannot get reading poetry, where the pattern is brief, discontinuous acts of attention followed by long ruminations. I rarely pick up a novel when I am not reading that particular novel, but I often randomly pick up a book of poetry to look something up or to read a poem or two.