Knowing that his life is coming to an end, the narrator of this thought-provoking novel checks himself into a nursing home where he s forced to take stock of his life. Coming to the conclusion that his experiences don t amount to much, he resolves to compose a sort of catalog of unlived lives, taking Marco Polo s "The Book of Marvels" as a model. To begin, he commits to paper the experiences of his fellow residents, among them Bridoso, who as an emigrant in Hamburg witnessed a tragic flood, and Bessa, whose trip across the North Sea aboard the battered ship Ponta do Sol ended in a shipwreck. Between these stories and the ups-and-downs of the lives of other residents of the Dantas clinic, the protagonist begins to weave a kaleidoscopic narrative that allows him to make up for his own life s shortcomings.
"Sabiendo que ya se acerca el final de su vida, el narrador de esta novela que inspira reflexion se ingresa en una clinica de reposo donde se ve obligado a evaluar su vida. Convencido de que lo experimentado hasta entonces no ha valido gran cosa, decide elaborar una suerte de catalogo de vidas no vividas, tomando por modelo del libro de Marco Polo, "El libro de las maravillas."Empieza aconsignar por escrito las experiencias de otros pacientes, entre ellos Bridoso y su invierno de emigrante en Hamburgo, donde fue testigo de una tragica inundacion, y Bessa, cuya travesia en el maltrecho Ponta do Sol por el Mar del Norte acabo en naufragio. Entre estas vicisitudes y las de otros personajes que pueblan la clinica Dantes, el protagonista va tejiendo una narracion calidoscopica que le permite compensar las carencias de su pasado.""