'Lyrically imaginative . . . enthralling' GUARDIAN Before she was the legendary Persian queen who spun a thousand tales, Shaherazade was a girl who saw something she shouldn't have. She told the king. She thought she was doing what was right. She couldn't have imagined what was to come. The Seljuk Empire is on fire and the king is on a rampage after learning of his wife's infidelity. Unsated by her execution, he has gone on to wed and behead a new wife night after night. Fear spreads through the city and Shaherazade must do something, anything, to halt the horror she has set in motion. When the king starts searching for his next bride, Shaherazade steps forward. As the sun sets on her wedding night, she begins to weave a tale that will go down in history. 'A sumptuous, moreish novel infused with the joys of storytelling' LEILA ABOULELA, author of Minaret 'I was entranced by this marvel of a book, wound about by the weave of its tales, unable to put it down' CLAIRE GILBERT, author of I, Julian