A moving, inventive story about the life of Hans Christian Andersen.

Through an enchanted conversation with a young girl in a horse-drawn coach, Hans Christian Andersen shares his life's struggles, dreams, and triumphs-whose threads can be found woven into his greatest stories. He tells her about the "fairy tale of his life" and how the son of a shoemaker became a celebrated writer. Heinz Janisch paints a sensitive portrait of Andersen and his literary work. Maja Kastelic has developed a well-suited illustration concept for this story that combines sumptuous art of a picture book with elements of a graphic novel. Thus, for the first time, H.C. Andersen's life and work become a fascinating collage in picture book form.