The Adventures of the Ingenious Alfanhi

This is the first English translation of The Adventures of the Ingenious Alfanhui, a picaresque novel in which the hero, a magical little boy, goes in search not of his fortune, but of knowledge, growing both wiser and possibly sadder in the process. As the author says, it is a book 'full of true lies', and a celebration of the variousness of the natural world. With his master, the taxidermist, who teaches him his trade, Alfanhui carries out some extraordinary experiments - making trees sprout feathers and creating birds that grow feathers like leaves.
Then the men come and burn down the house, and Alfanhui sets off on his travels round Castile. He learns about colours, oxen, herbs, and about the other people he encounters - a lonely giant in a wood, a puppet who thinks he is a man, a kindly Dona Tere, and his own grandmother with her collection of mysterious locked trunks.