Hotel Palace de Madrid

Hotel Palace de Madrid is the setting for a chance reunion that gives the narrator access to Frank’s letter to Vera, linking the hotel to the book’s shift from the narrator’s account to Frank’s account of events on Fiji.

Setting and Encounter

In November 1998, the narrator encounters Frank in Madrid at Hotel Palace de Madrid. The meeting comes almost a year after the narrator had last seen him, and the narrator regards the coincidence as one of the unexpected turns that can suggest hidden forces shaping people’s lives.

The Letter and Its Earlier Connection

The hotel carries a second, earlier connection to Frank: he had written his long letter to Vera there in May, after their meeting in April. By November, the narrator has the letter in hand and considers obtaining it a personal victory. The document would likely not have reached the narrator without the chance encounter with Frank in Madrid, at the very hotel where it had been written.

Narrative Significance

The letter describes episodes Frank and the narrator experienced together on Fiji. Its main focus is Ana and José, but it also recalls conversations Frank and the narrator had in private. The hotel therefore connects the chance discovery of the document with the island episodes it recounts, and marks the circumstances through which another participant’s account enters the narrative. The narrator presents the letter in full rather than interrupting it with additional commentary, then follows it with an extensive epilogue.