The Woman of La Mancha
by Karen Mann
The Woman of La Mancha, a companion book to Don Quixote, tells the woman's story of Don Quixote by recounting the story of the girl he called Dulcinea, the woman he loved from afar.
It's 1583. An eleven-year-old girl wakes in the back of a cart. She has lost her memory and is taken in by a kindly farm family in La Mancha. She adopts the name Aldonza. She doesn't speak for quite some time. Once she speaks, there is a family member who is jealous of her and causes a good deal of trouble, even causing her to be forced to leave La Mancha in tragic circumstances. Having to create a new life in a new location and still unaware of her birth family, she adopts the name Dulcinea and moves in the circles of nobility. While seeking her identity, she becomes the consort of wealthy men, finds reason to disguise herself as a man, and learns herbal healing to help others.
The novel also features a parallel story of a young man, Don Christopher, a knight of King Philip and the betrothed of the girl, who sets off on with a young squire, Sancho, to find the girl. Christopher's adventures takes them across Spain and forces him to grow up. Does he continue the quest to find his betrothed or marry another and break the contract with the king?
Both young people have many experiences and grow up before the readers' eyes. Floating in and out of each other's paths as they travel around Spain, will they eventually find each other and be together?
Paperback: 354 pages
Genre: Historical Romance
Publisher: Fleur-de-Lis Press (May 5, 2014)
ISBN-10: 0965252043
ISBN-13: 978-0965252041
The Woman of La Mancha is available for purchase at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Karen Mann is the Administrative Director of the brief-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program at Spalding University in Louisville (spalding.edu/mfa) of which she is also the co-founder.
Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in various anthologies. Her second book, The Saved Man: The First Century, is available as an ebook on Amazon. After having lived in Indiana most of her life, she now lives in California.
My Review:
I enjoy reading about this time period. I love when an author takes a famous person from history and writes a new story about one of the supporting characters. The author did a great job of honoring Don Quixote. I loved the info on each chapter at the beginning of each chapter. My favorite is Chapter 8 in which Donza finds her voice. The ending was fun and adventurous! I am giving this book a 4/5. I was given a copy to review via WOW book tours, however all opinions are my own.
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