The decline and fall of the famous libertine. "The crazy life and courageous death of a man who loved women too much to want only one." Don Juan is a passionate lover of life and nearly 1,000 women. One night, the Commendatore of Calatrava catches him kissing his daughter, and challenges him to a duel. Don Juan wins the duel, which of course means that the Commendatore is slain-and so begins the end for the incorrigible seducer. Alessandro Baricco (b. 1958) is an Italian writer, director and performer whose work has become famous throughout Europe. He has been a music critic forLa Repubblica andLa Stampa , and his novels have been bestsellers in Italy and France. He has won, among other things, the prestigious Prix Médicis étranger and the Premio Viareggio. He is the founder of the creative writing school Scuola Holden (named after Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye ), and editor of the Save the Story series.