Otto was once many things, but now, sitting in his caravan, drinking what is left of his coffee (dust), listening to the Allies rain their bombs on his city, he is simply scared. And so he's decided to write the story of his life. It is an extraordinary story, a story about how, with the help of his friends (and a camel), an acrobat of Hamburg became the King of Albania, and fell in love along…
Long ago, in a little island called Ithaca, on the west coast of Greece, there lived a king named Laertes. His kingdom was small and mountainous. People used to say that Ithaca "lay like a shield upon the sea," which sounds as if it were a flat country. But in those times shields were very large, and rose at the middle into two peaks with a hollow between them, so that Ithaca, seen far off…
There was once a king's son who told his father that he wished to marry. 'No, no!' said the king; 'you must not be in such a hurry. Wait till you have done some great deed. My father did not let me marry till I had won the golden sword you see me wear.' The prince was much disappointed, but he never dreamed of disobeying his father, and he began to think with all his might what he could …