Earlier this year, the marketing staff here at the store traveled to sunny Los Angeles for BEA – an annual conference for booksellers, publishers and distributors. Among the amazing people we got to meet (hello, George Hamilton!), I had the great fortune to meet the legendary Salman Rushdie. And by “meet” I mean I threaded my way across a packed restaurant and briefly shook his hand, no doubt with a red face and hors d’ oeuvres in my teeth. Still.
After reading Rushdie’s newest book, The Enchantress of Florence, I was reminded why he emanated such a palpable excitement that day. The man is a genius, pure and simple, and The Enchantress of Florence delivers such a walloping, rollicking, fantastically epic story it will literally hurt to turn the last page.
The book begins with a handsome stranger arriving at the court of Emperor Akbar, ruler of the Mughal empire. This stranger – part con man, part lover, part story-teller – comes bearing a story unlike any other, a story meant for the Emperor’s ears alone. Deftly weaving the histories of two hedonistic and sensual cities: the capital of the Mughal empire and Florence, Rushdie produces a novel so rich in detail and peopled by his characteristically layered and complex characters you’ll sneak off any chance you get to read the next chapter.
I’d tell you what happens next, but trust me…you want to read this one for yourself.
Posted by Laurie
BookPeople 