Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence, a gripping read

A COLLATERAL READ: Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence is a story within a story.

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Keywords: Fineprint, Mogor Dell\'Amore

New Delhi: It's been three years since the release of his last book, Shalimar the Clown, but Salman Rushdie's back on the literature scene with a love story titled The Enchantress of Florence.

The book could just as well be called the enchantress of the entire Middle Ages, for the book draws the readers in from Florence, Italy to Akbar's court in Fatehpur Sikri.

A story of love and lust, power and magic, The Enchantress of Florence is a story within a story; and Salman Rushdie does well to draw the reader in using history as the backdrop and historical characters as inspiration.

Qara Koz (Lady Black Eyes), the enchantress, weaves in the rest of the world — a world more than ready to fall, fight and even die for her.

But the plot is really kick-started by a strange yellow-haired traveller from the west, who calls himself many names, including Mogor dell'Amore (The Mughal of Love).

Mogor is a magical character, with an untold secret. But his story is just part of this colourful tapestry, with all the detailing the 60-year-old Rushdie could muster.

You see Akbar the Thinker, Akbar the Wise, and Akbar the fantastical dreaming into existence his most perfect conception of a woman — Jodha. And even though she is just a figment of Akbar’s imagination, his court is forced to accept her as a real person.

However, there’s no controversy here. Unlike the movie Jodhaa Akbar, Rushdie says he found a historical theory to base this on.

But it's also the violence, the betrayals, the power and manipulation of love that make this a gripping read. And a pacy read is not something you always associate with Salman Rushdie, but if that's what you're looking for, The Enchantress of Florence definitely deserves a space on your book shelves.