For the little girl who tells the story, his neighbour is a quiet "strange" being; at the beginning. And her neighbour gets freightened the first time he meets his mysterious visitors, mythological beings, that had had to leave their homes for different reasons.
But the neigbour overcomes fear with inquisitiveness. He tries to get more knowledge and information about the unknown. So he manages to understand his visitors, to put himself in their shoes and - along the journey - to get he himself wiser.

Although the neighbour isn´t "heroic", he is a kind of Don Quixote. He doesn´t really makes too much distinction between the real world and what he reads in his books. But his fantasy awakes the curiosity of the little girl, who finally makes friends with her "extraordinary" neighbour...