The Factory of Light by Michael Jacobs

I have just finished reading the delightful book. The writer has found the perfect balance between the humorous, the sentimental, and the nostalgic in this description of his personal discovery of a small community, in a remote and seemingly unremarkable village in Spain.
The pace of the book is masterly accomplished through his increasingly more personal involvement in the daily life of the community.
As it is expected of any travel book, the scenery features prominently in the book, but it is the people, each individual character so well and lovingly defined that make the book so readable. It was very easy to immerse myself in the lives of Frailes by following their inhabitants' plights.
The author becomes part of the community, he is not a mere spectator, he goes olive picking with them, helps them to restore the old cinema, shares the distress with a friend whose job is under threat, brings new people to the village and goes outside the village to meet new people using the village's contacts.
This is not an anthropological depiction of a village in Spain, nor a nostalgic view of a changing world. I find this is a book of discovery: the discovery of a place to live amid the people he enjoys doing things with.
I highly recommend this book.
The Factory of Light - Michael Jacobs. ISBN 0-7195-6163-9