Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange

Praise

“It’s hard to imagine shaking off the dust of this thousand-year-old volume of stories (recently discovered in an Istanbul library) and seeing them for the first time. As thoughtful as they are wondrous, these tales run the gamut: epic and domestic, charming and chilling, realistic and magical, with prose like a jewel box. If it looks scholarly at first glance, take heart; by the time God folds up the desert to help a lost heroine find her way across a strange land, this collection will have made itself at home in your imagination.”
—NPR, “Guide To 2015’s Great Reads”

“A revelation—a real classic of popular literature, so fluent that it is not just addictive reading but a genuine pleasure to sit down and lose yourself.”
—Sunday Times

“Offers a gateway to a different world of language and ideas, florid, wildly descriptive and are a powerful reminder of the human need for story . . . irresistible.”
—The Independent

“This book is an astonishment . . . a profound oddity, but an absolutely intriguing one.”
—Scotland on Sunday

“Instantly appealing [with] headlong narrative drive . . . above all, fun.”
—The Guardian

“Lyons’s translation is fluent and entertaining…Coupled with an informative introduction by ­Robert Irwin, author of The Arabian Nights: A Companion, this book is a welcome and recommended addition to those who enjoy the Arabian Nights.
—Library Journal