The Enchantress of Florence - Review

Sir Salman Rushdie's latest "The Enchantress of Florence" is a story set in Akbar's court in (Fatehpur) Sikri around 16th Century. One day a traveler visits Akbar's court with a letter from Queen Elizabeth I, claiming he is Akbar's uncle. Then he takes you through a journey across continents with Qara Köz, great-aunt of Akbar and the mother of the traveler.

The story oscillates between the east and the west, between Sikri and Florence. He brings out the details of Sikri and Akbar's life in such details that you can completely visualize the entire city. Its hilarious at parts, like the instance when Akbar writes love letters to Queen Elizabeth and proposes to marry her and in turn marry the great east and west empires. It is a pure fantasy at parts where he describes about the mirror as a women accompanying Qara Köz or the part where the artist enters and hides inside the painting. The beauty of Qara Köz is described in such exotic and explicit details that your imagination breaks all the boundaries of fantasy.

Her relationship with the Persian Shah and three men, Nino Argalia, Niccolò Machiavelli and Ago Vespucci forms the story line of the entire novel. The book describes the Sikri part of story in the very Indian form of English and describes the Florence part with a more pro western form of English. This makes you feel as if you are reading two different novels at the same time.

He ends the novel by breaking the suspense about Qara Köz's relationship with the Mughal dynasty. Over all was a heavy reading experience for me.