Salman Rushdie reads from his highly anticipated new novel, The Enchantress of Florence.  This is an irreverent, vivid and dazzling tale of a mysterious and beautiful woman attempting to command her own destiny in a man’s world.  The story is set in two cities, unknown to each other, at the height of their powers–the hedonistic Mughal capital, in which Akbar the Great wrestles daily with questions of belief and desire, and the equally sensual city of Florence during the High Renaissance, where Machiavelli learns, the hard way, about the true brutality of power.

Recorded Thursday, July 10, 2008 at Chicago Public Library.