Indo-American Arts Council, Inc.

Salman Rushdie’s Enchantress of Florence: Book launch - June 3, 2008

For immediate release

THE INDO-AMERICAN ARTS COUNCIL AND THE RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART
ARE PROUD TO PRESENT
AN EVENING WITH SALMAN RUSHDIE TO CELEBRATE HIS NEW NOVEL
‘THE ENCHANTRESS OF FLORENCE’

“For Rushdie, the pen is a magician’s wand…If The Enchantress of Florence doesn’t win this year’s Man Booker I’ll curry my proof copy and eat it.”
-John Sutherland, Financial Times

The Enchantress of Florence
A Random House Hardcover
On Sale: May 27, 2008, $26.00

Book Reading & Signing by Salman Rushdie
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
At Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street (@ 7th Avenue)
New York, NY 10011

June 2nd, 2008 - New York, NY: On June 3rd, the Indo-American Arts Council and the Rubin Museum of Art in association with Random House will host an evening with celebrated author, Salman Rushdie to launch his new novel ‘The Enchantress of Florence.’ A dazzling, irreverent novel set in Renaissance Florence and the court of the great Mughal Empire, ‘The Enchantress of Florence’ opens with a young European traveler who calls himself “Mogor dell’Amore,” the Mughal of Love. He arrives at the court of the Emperor Akbar with a tale that captivates the imperial capital- a story about a mysterious woman, a great beauty believed to possess powers of enchantment and sorcery, and her impossible journey to the far off city of Florence.

Drawing on more than seven years of research, Rushdie brings together two seemingly different cities-the hedonistic Mughal capital, in which the brilliant Emperor Akbar the Great wrestles daily with questions of belief, desire, and the treachery of his sons, and the sensual city of Florence, where Niccolò Machiavelli takes a starring role. A virtuosic feat of storytelling that mixes political intrigue and high drama, romance and magic, Rushdie's novel is a profound reflection on war and politics, gender and society, fantasy and rumor, individuality and public life, and how the brutal past still influences our present world.

This special evening will include a performance by renowned tabla player, Suphala and a post-reading discussion between Rushdie and Shashi Tharoor, followed by a Q&A. Two years ago, the IAAC launched Rushdie’s ‘Shalimar the Clown’. Salman Rushdie, an Advisory Board member of the IAAC says, "The IAAC continues to go from strength to strength. I am proud to be actively involved in this essential arts organization." For more information on the event, please visit

About the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC):
The Indo-American Arts Council is a registered 501(c)3 not-for-profit, secular service and resource arts organization charged with the mission of promoting and building the awareness, creation, production, exhibition, publication and performance of Indian and cross-cultural art forms in North America.

The IAAC supports all artistic disciplines in the classical, fusion, folk and innovative forms influenced by the arts of India. They work with colleagues around the United States to broaden collective audiences and to create a network for shared information, resources and funding. The focus is to work with artists and arts organizations in North America as well as to facilitate artists and arts organizations from India in their endeavors to exhibit, perform and produce their works here.For further information, please visit

For more information, please contact:
Peepul PR
646.495.6224
Gayatri Hingorani / Srimoyi Bhattacharya
gayatri@mypeepul.com / sri@mypeepul.com
High resolution pictures are available upon request

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE ENCHANTRESS OF FLORENCE
“[A] prodigious fever dream of a book…A beguiling, incandescent tale of travel, treachery, and transformation set in the Renaissance Florence of Machiavelli and the Medicis and in India’s Mughal Empire....Rushdie ushers in a caravan of low, laughable characters in the service of his weighty and witty observations on religion, politics, sex, war, art, philosophy, and science in an East-West world of white mischief and black magic, of enigmatic nightmares and inscrutable dreams.”—Elle

“Blending ornate imagery with knowing, saber-swift wit to conjure up cunning escapes, dashing victories and legendary seductions…beyond its magical razzle-dazzle lays a work of steely contemporary relevance.” - Bloomberg

“Ingenious…a sparkling return to form.” - Publisher Weekly (starred, boxed review)

“Entertainment of the highest literary order.”-Booklist (starred, boxed review)

“This brilliant, fascinating, generous novel swarms with gorgeous young women both historical and imagined, beautiful queens and irresistible enchantresses... ...[a] sumptuous, impetuous mixture of history with fable. But in the end, of course, it is the hand of the master artist, past all explanation, that gives this book its glamour and power, its humour and shock, its verve, its glory. . . . We English-speakers have our own Ariosto now, our Tasso, stolen out of India. Aren't we the lucky ones?” -Ursula K Le Guin, The Guardian

“An all-dancing, colourful performance leaping up from the pages.” -Stephen Abell, The Daily Telegraph

“An exuberant mix of fantasy and history.”-The Daily Mail

“The Enchantress of Florence reminds us, in case we may have forgotten, that [Rushdie] can tell a story across East and West better than anyone else in the language.”
-Jerry Brotton, The Sunday Telegraph


TOUR SCHEDULE

New York
Barnes & Noble, Union Square-6/5, New York Public Library-6/27

Hartford, CT
Wallace Stevens Theater (RJ Julia with CT Forum)-6/6

Seattle
Town Hall (University Bookstore)-6/12, Elliott Bay-6/12, W Hotel-6/11

Portland
Powell’s Cedar Hills Crossing -6/13

Los Angeles
Vroman’s-6/14, Chaucer’s Santa Barbara-6/15, Writers Guild Theater (Writer’s Bloc and Book Soup)-6/16

San Francisco
Capitola at the Rio Theater Santa Cruz-6/17, City Arts and Lectures-6/18,
Book Passage, Corte Madera-6/19

Philadelphia
Free Library (Michael Fox)-6/26

Washington, DC
6th and I Synagogue (Politics and Prose)-6/30

Atlanta
Carter Center (Emory University and A Capella Books) -7/7

Miami
Temple Judea (Books & Books with Florida Center for Literary Arts)-7/17

Milwaukee
Schwartz, Shorewood -7/9

Chicago
Harold Washington Library (Seminary Co-op)-7/10

Madison, WI
Borders-7/11

Boston
Harvard Yard’s Memorial Church (Harvard Bookstore)-7/14

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