UNINTERLINGUA 2015

U N I N T E R L I N G U A 104 danger. Despite his love for his wife, Laza- rus chose to isolate himself for her safety. “Cuando estaba a punto de perder la ra- zón, comprobé que la sombra solo actuaba cuando yo estaba en las inmediaciones. No podía vivir lejos de mí. Por este motivo, de- cidí abandonar Cravenmoore y refugiarme en la isla del faro. A nadie podía dañar allí” (241). However, Lazarus underestimated Al- ma’s love for him and her desire to be at his side no matter the danger. But the shadow outsmarted them both and destroyed her boat on the way to the lighthouse, causing her to drown. After his wife’s death, Laza- rus essentially became a prisoner in his own house for the next twenty years. The heart- broken toymaker, unable to live without her, meticulously created his greatest work ever: an exact replica of his wife so that her me- mory would always stay alive. In Marina, once again there is a story within a story. We find the love story of Eva Irinova and Mijail Kolvenik within the love story of Óscar Drai and Marina Blau. Óscar and Marina are teenagers who share an un- breakable friendship; however, they never really date, and only kiss for the first time on the last page of the novel when Marina tells Óscar that she loves him. Eva and Mijail, on the other hand, were married for more than 30 years, had a daughter, and lived under horrible and tragic circumstances from the very first day of their marriage until the day they both died in a fire. Marina begins with Óscar remembering what had happened to him at age fifteen when he lived in Barcelona fifteen years ear- lier, but his recollection of things is as vivid as if the events had happened just the day before. He attended a boarding school for boys and often took long walks through the streets of Barcelona. One day, he walked into what he thought was an empty mansion and unintentionally ended up stealing a gold watch. When he returned to the house to return the watch, Óscar met the two people who lived in the run-down mansion: Marina and her father, German. From the begin- ning he noticed Marina’s beauty, and fell in love with her, but never dared to tell her. He was happy being able to visit her and share a few meals with her and her father; they soon became like a family to him. From the start Óscar noticed that although the house was large, it was in great need of repairs. It was obvious that father and daughter no longer enjoyed the economic means they once had. Marina’s mother had died earlier, and German seemed aged and tired. Ma- rina tried to tend to her father as much as possible, and on occasion there were visits to the doctor in Madrid. Upon their return, Óscar would ask her how things went, and she would give fairly encouraging but vague medical reports. As the story of Óscar and Marina deve- lops, the author introduces the story of Mijail Kolvenik and Eva Irinova, but their story is a bit more difficult to follow as it has many Pierina Beckman