The fugitive picks up Morel's cue cards and learns the machine keeps running because the wind and tide feed it with an endless supply of kinetic energy. The meeting ends abruptly as Morel leaves in anger. Although Morel does not mention her by name, the fugitive is sure he is talking about Faustine.Īfter hearing that the people recorded on previous experiments are dead, one of the tourists guesses correctly they will die, too. He claims the recording will capture their souls, and through looping they will relive that week forever and he will spend eternity with the woman he loves. He comes up with all sorts of theories about what is happening on the island, but finds out the truth when Morel tells the tourists he has been recording their actions of the past week with a machine of his invention, which is capable of reproducing reality. The strangest thing he notices is the presence of two suns and two moons in the sky. During a day at the pool, he sees the tourists jump to shake off the cold when the heat is unbearable. In the aquarium he encounters identical copies of the dead fish he found on his day of arrival. He watches them closely while still avoiding direct contact and notices more strange things. They have come out of nowhere and yet they talk as if they have been there for a while. He attributes the experience to a hallucination caused by food poisoning, but the tourists reappear that night.
The fugitive returns to the museum to investigate and finds no evidence of people being there during his absence. He points out that the conversations between Faustine and Morel repeat every week and fears he is going crazy.Īs suddenly as they appeared, the tourists vanish. He assumes she is ignoring him however, his encounters with the other tourists have the same result. The fugitive decides to approach her, but she does not react to him. She and another man, a bearded tennis player called Morel who visits her frequently, speak French among themselves. He spies on her and while doing so falls in love. All he knows is that the island is the focus of a strange disease whose symptoms are similar to radiation poisoning.Īmong the tourists is a woman who watches the sunset every day from the cliff on the west side of the island. He believes he is on the (fictional) island of Villings, a part of the Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu), but is not sure.
The diary described the fugitive as a writer from Venezuela sentenced to life in prison. He retreats to the swamps while they take over the museum on top of the hill where he used to live. Although he considers their presence a miracle, he is afraid they will turn him in to the authorities. The fugitive starts a diary after tourists arrive on the desert island where he is hiding.
First edition cover with an illustration of Faustine.
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