The Enchantress of Florence

Booker Prize-winner Sir Salman Rushdie allows his fantastical tendencies full reign in his sprawling and whimsical ENCHANTRESS OF FLORENCE, a literary riff on the THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS. By setting his tale in Florence when the Italian town was ruled by the Akbar Empire, Rushdie allows himself to possess the entirety of both Western and Eastern culture, and his novel includes Persian princesses and European knights alike. Familiar historical figures such as Machiavelli make appearances, as does Vlad the Impaler, and the book churns itself into a stew of styles, fairy tales, and cultural and literary allusion.