The figure of Pamela, the friend character, two lines that open an immense door

The figure of Pamela, the friend character, occupies very few lines in the tale: a voice arriving from far away that fills the room. They live in two distant cities and their relationship is kept alive on the telephone.

Pamela brings high spirits even to a funeral. Her exuberance hides a remarkable gift for observation: as the book puts it, «in a few words she can capture what others struggle to say at length».

During a phone call she defines the city where her friend lives: «a town of dead dogs». In her language the image carries a precise meaning: people who cross paths without looking at one another, who keep only the ability to exist for themselves. It is a diagnosis of community delivered in four words, on the telephone, between one laugh and the next.

From that phrase everything else follows: Pepilandia is born as the opposite setting, point by point, to the town of dead dogs. The friend character occupies two lines and hands the story its founding phrase.