The Lost Diary of Don Juan - by Douglas Carlton Abrams (Paperback)

About the Book

Capturing the decadent and dangerous world of the Spanish Golden Age, this historical novel explores universal questions about the nature of love and desire--brought to life through Don Juan's secret childhood in a convent to his inescapable fall into the madness of love.

Book Synopsis

Douglas Carlton Abram's magical debut novel captures the heart of the Spanish Golden Age and the secret life of the world's greatest lover--Don Juan--who came to embody the spirit of desire that would inflame the modern age.

It was a time of discovery and decadence, when life became a gamble and the gold that poured endlessly into the port of Sevilla devalued money, marriage, and love itself. In the midst of these treacherous times, Juan Tenorio is born and then abandoned in the barn of a convent. Raised secretly by the nuns, he learns to love and worship all women and wants nothing more than to be a priest, until he falls in love with one of the sisters. When their affair is discovered, Juan leaves the Church forever.

He is soon recruited to be a spy by the powerful Marquis de la Mota, who teaches him to become the world's greatest libertine and seducer of women. But when he crosses swords with the most powerful man in the Empire, Don Juan must escape the murderous fury of the Inquisitor who battles all forms of debauchery, deviance, and heresy.

It is after knowing countless women that he is convinced by the Marquis to keep a diary, and it is here within its pages that Don Juan reveals his greatest adventures and the Arts of Passion he mastered. But what finally compels him to confess everything and risk losing his life, livelihood, and honor is the most perilous adventure of all--the irresistible fall into the madness of love with the only woman who could ever make him forget all others.

About the Author

Douglas Carlton Abrams is the nationally bestselling author of The Lost Diary of Don Juan, which has been published in thirty languages. He writes fact-based fiction and did extensive research for his new novel, including swimming with and recording humpback whales, meeting present-day whalers, and cage diving with great white sharks. Previously an editor at the University at California Press and HarperCollins, he is the cofounder of Idea Architects, a book and media development agency.