While He Wrote

Throughout his tumultuous literary career, Miguel de Cervantes was supported by his sisters, wife, niece, and daughter. They played pivotal roles in his life, yet little is known about the hidden figures behind the author of Don Quixote, whose idealistic and often delusional protagonist echoes his own fraught relationship with women.

Martha Bátiz highlights the lives of these family members in A Daughter’s Place by picturing an untold aspect of the Spanish writer’s story: the experiences of those who surrounded, endured, and ultimately survived him. Set in early seventeenth-century Spain, the novel centres on the author’s sister Magdalena; his wife, Catalina; his niece, Constanza; and his daughter, Isabel. Through their eyes, a different version of the iconic figure emerges: a flawed patriarch whose pursuit of money and fame costs him the closeness of those around him.

Spanning seventeen years, the narrative follows Cervantes through his...