Peter Schlemihl

"Peter Schlemihl" by Adelbert von Chamisso is a 19th-century novel about a guy named Peter Schlemihl, who makes a strange choice to trade his shadow to a mysterious man for riches, and this decision pushes him into a wild journey where he wrestles with who he is, what he's lost, and how others see him. The tale kicks off with Peter rolling into a new town, wanting to make a name for himself but quickly feeling the strangeness of not having a shadow. After a weird meeting with a rich dude, Mr. Thomas Jones, and his crew, Peter is pulled in by a mysterious old man in grey, who seems to pull fancy items out of thin air. Peter's curiosity leads to a bizarre offer to sell his shadow, and he has to think about what that deal really means, hinting at the tough times ahead. It all sets the scene for a story that mixes the unbelievable with some serious thinking about what it means to be human and what society values.