The novel also vividly depicts life in modern Seville and flirts with existentialism as well as Benjamin's flaneur. Led by Granville's sparse, concise voice, we are taken from the harbour of Portbou along two very different storylines: one of losing oneself abroad, the other of settling into something. Yet Granville's apathy and his life's lack of meaning echo through both; the two distinct choices both end in him fleeing to the other. Happiness and meaning do not come from each choice made, but how each choice is lived, or in the case of Granville, not.
