Invites the reader to share the excitement, experiences, even food, that the author has encountered while weaving his way through [Spain] slowly and deliciously... Mr. Nooteboom lingers in out-of-the-way places most tourists miss New York Times Book Review Nooteboom plunges fervently into the fabric of Spain itself San Francisco Chronicle The erudition, ambition and resonance are reminiscent of Claudio Magris' magisterial Danube. But the voice - and, as he has rendered it, the territory - is Nooteboom's own Independent on Sunday Nooteboom joins a select band of writers - Patrick Leigh Fermor, Norman Lewis, Claudio Magris and Jan Morris among them - who have the rare ability to evoke the soul of a nation -- Euan Cameron Daily Telegraph