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He was a much admired writer who died on April 23rd, 1616. Selman Rushdie called him

one of the fathers of modern literature. William Shakespeare? Well, that's the trick.

I just said it applies to Shakespeare, but it also applies to Miguel de Servantes, author

of the ingenious gentleman Don Quijote of La Mancha, or simply Don Quijote. Those of us

who love Shakespeare often think, well, what if Shakespeare had written a novel, his

facility with language, his eye for description, his cracking sense of plot, and above all,

his insight into character, just imagine what he could do with the form. And for those

of us who are tied to the English language, we might go about our business and stop there.

Too bad, they weren't writing novels then, so Shakespeare had poetry and theater,

and we have his sonnets and athello and hamlet and all the other plays, which are a gift.

Let's not be greedy, except people were writing novels, not in England, but on the continent,

including those written by the man Rushdie called the other father of modern literature.

Servantes wrote what's been called the Spanish Bible, and while it's not a sacred religious

text, it's hugely important, and it's a great, great book. It's the kind of book that's always

relevant, always smart, always funny, enjoyed by generation after generation in countries and in

languages all over the world. A book that's always a step ahead of us, placing Servantes in the

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