Twenty years on, and the Queen of the Arabian Nights must speak again . . .
'When a cloud of ice embraces the place of peace,
As in the west they feast,
The fifth son in his remorse,
Shall call forth the storyteller of the east . . .'
Ninth-century Baghdad, legendary city of the Arabian Nights and crossroads of the East. It is nearly twenty years since Scheherazade spun her tales for a thousand and one nights; the tales that saved her life and immortalised the city that she had never seen - until now. Scheherazade and her husband, King Shahriyar, arrive in Baghdad to a rapturous welcome from the Caliph and his people, but within hours the Queen is kidnapped from her bathhouse, and disappears.
An ancient prophecy leads the Caliph to despatch a motley crew of sailors on a rescue mission. As the seven unlikely saviours venture deeper into the unforgiving desert, losing camels, supplies, and all sense of direction, Scheherazade must face her abductors alone. And once again she begins to spin a tale to save her life . . .
An adventure full of wit, danger and incident, murder and mystery, poetry and philosophy - and testament to the power of the imagination - 'Scheherazade' sweeps from the historical realities of Arabian life into a world of magic carpets and miraculous beings. At once bawdy and beautiful, it is a novel rich with all the heady power of the Arabian Nights.
