cover image TILTING AT WINDMILLS: A Novel of Cervantes and the Errant Knight

TILTING AT WINDMILLS: A Novel of Cervantes and the Errant Knight

Julian Branston, . . Shaye Areheart, $23 (336pp) ISBN 978-1-4000-4928-8

What if Don Quixote appeared in the flesh, riding backwards on a noble steed and peeking out from under a makeshift helmet at his creator, Miguel de Cervantes? A meeting between the two literary greats is the creaky premise of this novel, but Branston's tale takes on a merry life of its own, proving itself no feeble pastiche. A formal introductory letter from "Cervantes" himself may discourage casual readers, but the author soon introduces a cast of deliciously human characters and unleashes them on one another in a tale of literary intrigue. Cervantes is hard at work on his masterpiece when his friend Pedro, a buffoonish aspiring merchant with a marked resemblance to Sancho Panza, confesses that the stories he has told Cervantes about a mad old knight are actually true, and the model for the character of Don Quixote is a real man. Cervantes is naturally eager to meet the errant knight, and his wish is fulfilled when the mad and maddening Don Quixote appears to defend Cervantes against an evil poet who is out to one-up the writer with a manuscript supposedly written by Don Quixote's love, Dulcinea. Once the old hero and Cervantes are in the same quarters—be it tavern or holy site or both—the dialogue sparkles and good writing conquers evil as true farce takes hold. This is a rollicking, earthy, compulsively readable take-off on the 17th-century classic. Agent, Howard Morhaim. (Feb.)