Jon and Katharina had left the big city for the winter and moved to Jon's childhood home, high on the rocks above a small village on the Cantabrian coast. They both can work remotely and as the winter progresses, they settle into their own worlds - living together but living almost separately, working on separate floors and drifting away from each other. Then one night curious lights show up over the village and all the Ufologists in the area converge on the village, disturbing the peace and the couple's attempt at calm life. That would have been bad enough. But then Markel and Virginia show up - with Markel claiming to be a distant cousin who had grown up in Chile and before long the two of them move into the house as well.

The two couples (even though Markel keeps claiming that Virginia works for him actually) don't really have much in common and the newcomers seem to be making themselves at home in ways that Jon and Katharina find troubling. The fact that Jon cannot remember Markel at all while Markel claims they had made does not help either. Neither do the ufologists camping outside of their doors.

The novella has a very gothic feeling - from the house and its position, through the descriptions and to the almost weird happenings. I've seen it reviewed as science fiction and I can see how that can be read that way (Markel and Virginia show up when the lights did and disappear after they come again) but the author never gives a definitive answer - were they who they claimed to be or were they swindlers who had done their homework or were they alien. The reader is left to decide for themselves - and depending on how one is inclined, it may be any of those. In all cases, they were the strangers - the ones who did not belong - even if noone really finds out why.

I liked the style and the language but I found the whole thing a bit incomplete. It feels like a part of something bigger more than a standalone tale - and not just because of the lack of resolution. It does make one feel unsettled (as all good gothic tales do) so it works for that but I wish we either got a resolution (even a hint of one). I can see what the author attempted to do though even if it did not work for me completely. ( )

Jon y Katharina pasan el invierno en la costa cantábrica. Se alojan en la vieja casa familiar de él, demasiado grande para dos personas. Se sienten solos y, cuando Katharina se queda embarazada sin desearlo, empieza a preguntarse si irse a vivir con él fue buena idea. Dos sucesos vienen a alterar la rutina de la pareja. Una noche, unas luces extrañas aparecen en el cielo. A la mañana siguiente, Markel, un primo lejano de Jon, se presenta por sorpresa en la casa. Le acompaña la atractiva y silenciosa Virginia, una suerte de asistente. La situación pronto se vuelve incómoda: los primos no recuerdan haberse visto nunca y Jon duda de que Markel sea quien dice ser; la presencia de Virginia se hace cada vez más amenazadora y, además, los visitantes no solo no parecen querer irse, sino que empiezan a apropiarse poco a poco de la casa. Pese a todo, Jon y Katharina se sienten fascinados por esos extraños en los que ven un remedio para su aburrimiento y quizá también para sus problemas.