A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom is the latest historical novel from Irish author John Boyne (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas). Telling tales from across the breadth of human history, it deals with a lot of stuff that was real and actually happened, as well as some stuff that has only happened if youāve played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Yesterday, Reddit user NoNoNo_OhHoHo posted a shot of part of the book, spotted in a section that deals with dressmaking:
Red lizalfos, an Octorok eyeball and Hylian shrooms? In a historical book? In a section about dressmaking? Thatāsā¦ weird. But thereās a likely explanation for it.
As writer Dana Schwartz explains in this Twitter thread, it looks like Boyne, when needing some added details on how how to dye some fabric red for his book, went straight to Google and hit āingredients red dye clothesā.
If those ingredients look weird to you, it is because they are straight of out of the Zelda game Breath of the Wild pic.twitter.com/JpebdXJqP1
ā Dana Schwartz ā on hiatus (@DanaSchwartzzz) August 3, 2020
So: while John Boyne was doing a perfunctory google search for how to dye clothes red he found a site listing monster parts and accidentally put them in his Very Serious book. I am very embarrassed for him and this is my nightmare but itās also very funny
ā Dana Schwartz ā on hiatus (@DanaSchwartzzz) August 3, 2020
Whoops. I havenāt read Boyleās book myself, but if you have and find mention of the fall of the Persian Empire having anything to do with a giant mechanical camel or some seals that can swim in the sand, let us know.
UPDATE: Heās been a very good sport about it:
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1290144321367240707
