Don Quixote, Vol. 2 (Ormsby Translation)

Cervantes wrote the book that invented the novel itself, and somehow also made it achingly funny and deeply sad. Don Quixote follows an aging hidalgo who has read so many chivalric romances that he loses his grip on reality, transforming himself into the knight-errant Don Quixote de la Mancha. He recruits Sancho Panza, a pragmatic farmer, as his squire, and together they stumble through a Spain that refuses to play along with his delusions. The great magic of the book is how Cervantes makes usroot for this ridiculous, deluded man even as we see clearly that windmills are not giants and tavern wenches are not princesses. The second volume deepens this paradox: the world grows harsher, Quixote grows saner, and the line between noble madness and foolish reality blurs until you're not sure who's wiser, the knight or his squire. Four centuries later, this remains the essential meditation on why humans need stories so badly we'll ruin ourselves to believe in them.