The Enchantress Of Florence

The Enchantress of Florence is a story about stories. From the first moments, Mogor heads toward Sikri with the goal of telling his story to an audience of precisely one person. However, the totalizing nature of this narrative soon splinters; the story of Mogor becomes the story of the three friends in Florence, which then becomes the story of Argalia’s experiences in the Ottoman Empire. Each time, the structure of the novel embeds a story within a story until a point where fiction and reality blend together for the characters. Added to this, the use of historical figures reflects this blend back toward the audience. Real people like Niccolo Machiavelli and Emperor Akbar encounter fictional characters such as Qara Koz and Mogor. The fictional exists within the historical, blending together until neither the audience nor the characters themselves can be certain what is real and what is fiction. In the world of the novel, the power of stories is such that everything is a story and everyone is a character.

The delicate nature of reality is a consequence of the power of stories. In a world where everything is a story, reality is not beholden to truth.