The Spectacular Life of Benito Martin del Canto, David Towner, 2023
This young adult novel is really two stories in one.
Taryn Michaels is a young girl who is totally obsessed with Spanish culture. Returning from a business trip to Spain, Peter, her father, presents her with an old book he found in a used book store. It is a supernatural fantasy, with no indication of who wrote it. Taryn brings it to school, and it gets confiscated by Alice, her Spanish teacher. She checks out the book, and realizes that it may be an unpublished story by Miguel de Cervantes, written before his novel "Don Quixote." If confirmed, this would be a Huge Event, aside from the fact that the book is 400 years old.
The story, set in the 1500s, is about a boy named Benito. Raised by a herd of mountain goats, from an early age, he goes off to see the world. He does many different jobs on many different sailing ships. On one such ship, Benito is introduced to the world of slavery. He manages to free everyone on the ship. Later in life, he becomes friends with an English playwright named Shakespeare. Benito's life is filled with adventure, and narrow escapes from very unpleasant people.
Separately, these stories are excellent. Put them together, and this is an automatic Highly recommended. It's got history and adventure, and is really worth reading, for teens and adults.
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