●He lived in a small village in a dusty corner of Spain, a bony man of about fifty. He had little to do, and so he read. The flickering candle flame filled the corners of his room with ghostly shadows of giants and of dragons—for the only books he read were about the knights of old who roamed the countryside seeking adventures. The horizon stretched out an invitation. He knew that he too must be a knight, and travel on a quest for adventures. So he found a suit of rusty armor, made himself a visor of cardboard and tin, and he called himself Don Quixote de la Mancha.
●In this spirited, lively retelling of the famous Cervantes classic, Michael Harrison's clear and lively style is beautifully complemented by Victor Ambrus's evocative paintings of the landscape of sixteenth-century Spain.