The Pope's Rhinoceros

byLawrence Norfolk

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In February 1516, a Portugese ship sank with the loss of all hands a mile off the coast of Italy. The Nostra Senora da Adjuda had sailed 14000 miles from the Indian kingdom Gujarat: her mission, to deliver a rhinoceros to the Pope. The Pope's Rhinoceros tells the stories which culminate in this bizarre incident. Ranging from the Baltic Sea to a flyblown colony in India, from a tribe hidden in the African rain forest to atrocities committed in an obscure town in Tuscany, Norfolk's brilliant novel holds up the true history of the rhinoceros as a mirror to the fantasies and obsessions of the Renaissance.

Bawdy baroque-punk prose of marvellous fluency, overlaid with a gloss of heavy-weight erudition... an astonishing achievement, little short of a masterpiece

William Dalrymple, Independent on Sunday

About Lawrence Norfolk

Details
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • ISBN: 9780749398743
  • Length: 768 pages
  • Dimensions: 198mm x 33mm x 129mm
  • Weight: 532g
  • Price: £18.99
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