"Kaspar Hauser Speaks" by Steven Millhauser

Kaspar Hauser was a real person, and he really did undergo the horrific childhood explicated in this story disguised as a lecture to a group of curious German citizens. He was a mystery, an enigma, a riddle, a puzzle that may never be fully pieced together. Millhauser's story is another fascinating fragment to add to all the rest. Read by Scoot.

Don't let Steven Millhauser's Pulitzer for his last novel, Martin Dressler, or the consistent high praise for all his novels since his first, Edwin Mulhouse, fool you--his best work is really in the realm of novellas and short stories, and that is one of the reasons why he is just about our favorite living author. He writes about his childhood in small-town New Jersey; he writes about odd, artistic young men and women in familiar yet strange landscapes; he writes about imaginary lands and legendary people. And he always writes with brilliant detail and love for this marvelous invention called the English language.