Dix mille guitares, Paperback Book, By: Clement, Catherine

Morocco, 1578. Ten thousand abandoned guitars on a battlefield. The Portuguese are defeated. The last crusade of Europe ends with the defeat and the disappearance of the young king Sebastian. Dead or alive? We are waiting for him. His favourite tells. Under his hard rhinoceros skin, he has retained a part of humanity. "It's not every day that we meet an animal that has crossed India in its width and which, after having sailed from Goa to Lisbon, finds itself in a menagerie to charm sovereigns, a young king Portuguese, an old king of Spain, an alchemist emperor, a barbarian queen. "By retracing Sebastian's expectations, Catherine Clément offers us a colourful gallery of portraits of the powerful in a rapidly changing Europe: the weight of the Habsburgs, the violence of the wars of religion, the folly of the Emperor of Austria, the rebellion of the young Queen Christine, his passion for Descartes. Composed like an opera, this novel, full of fantasy and little-known truths, gives its voice to memorable characters, like this famous rhino.