In the intoxication of silence
In the intoxication of silence , a novel by Albert Sánchez Piñol was published in 2002 under the title La pell freda (literally “cold skin”) by Edicions La Campana in Barcelona . In 2005 the German translation by Angelika Maass was published by S. Fischer Verlag .
action
The novel tells the story of an Irish freedom fighter who seeks to get out of the fight by taking up a job as a weather observer on a supposedly deserted island far away from civilization and traffic routes in the South Atlantic . There he meets his predecessor, Batís Caffó, who - largely robbed of his mind - is holed up in a lighthouse from the nightly attacks of the so-called frog guys, strange hybrid creatures made of humans and fish. Even the nameless protagonist escapes from his weather observation house into the lighthouse after the first attacks by the frogs and defends his life together with the dull Batís against the multiple superiority of the fish-human beings.
The angry hatred that Batís feels for the frogs does not prevent him from keeping one of these beings, a female, as a maid, whom he makes sexually submissive. At first disgusted by this, the protagonist soon begins to live out his sexual lust with what is then known as the mascot. In doing so, he develops a diffuse affection for the being, which of course remains one-sided and does not prevent him from arbitrarily mistreating it. Nevertheless, in the further course of the plot, he manages to change perspective, and he no longer sees the frogs as an amorphous , hateful crowd, but accepts moral justifications for their actions. Aren't they just defending their island from the intruders who have destroyed hundreds of them with guns and explosives? Is it not greedy cannibalism , but loyalty to comrades, that they leave no fallen and wounded on the battlefield?
After he got to know the children of the frog fellows and made friends with one of them in particular, adopting it, so to speak, he is sure that a peaceful coexistence with the frog fellows is possible and he looks for ways to communicate. A rifle "sacrificed" by him, for which there was no longer any ammunition, is apparently accepted as a gesture of peace, and the aggression subsides. Until Batís overreacts to take up his weapon again and shoots. After Batís, now finally raptured, has left the protection of the lighthouse and falls victim to the vengeance of the frogs, a new weather observer appears, who is brought to the island to replace the protagonist. The opening scene, in which he came across an obviously crazy lighthouse keeper who later turned out to be the old weather observer, is repeated. Now it is the protagonist who is found fogged by alcohol and depression in the lighthouse and does not leave the island by ship. The new weather observer is attacked in the first night and sprays - shedding all intellectuality - with plans to fight to wipe out the "Haimenschen".
Audio book
Bernd Michael Lade will read the novel in German as an audio book on six CDs.
filming
The novel was filmed in 2017 by Xavier Gens under the title Cold Skin - Isle of Creatures .