You know those plans that people describe as so crazy they just might work? Scheherazade‘s plan deserves a place right at the top of any list we might compile. Who looks at a serial wife-murdering sultan and says, I’m going to marry that guy and keep myself alive by telling a neverending series of stories. They say to fight fire with fire, so why not fight madness with madness? Even if Scheherazade wasn’t real, I like to think that her plan might have actually worked. Jamila Ahmed takes the kernel of Scheherazade’s story and departs from the version told in The Thousand and One Nights to deliver an incredible tale (tales?) of love, betrayal, magic, duty, and survival in the outstanding novel, Every Rising Sun.
One might think that the daughter of a vizier would know better about poking around the Arg-e-Bam, the fortress of the khan of Kerman but Scheherazade can maybe be excused for seeing things she shouldn’t’ve. After all, it’s not like she meant to catch the khatun in flagrante with someone who is definitely not her husband. Torn between her desire to tell the truth and the khatun’s threats, Scheherazade tries to find a middle path by writing a note and leaving it somewhere for the khan to find. When the khan finds the note and, shortly after, his wife in a compromising position, he orders the khatun’s execution. He also does the same for his next three wives. There is no sign that the khan—Shahryar—will stop. And that’s when Scheherazade comes up with her plan. If she can somehow delay Shahryar from ordering her execution, she hopes that his bloodlust will abate. She gambles on her inventive storytelling and cunning use of cliffhangers to keep her head on her shoulders.
And, somehow, it works. Ahmed uses stories from Scheherazade’s traditional repertoire to create layers of narrative for her character’s audience (and us) to be hooked on. Each story feeds into another as Scheherazade’s creations have adventures or explain how they came to be in peril or just march off on tangents. It takes a good bit of brainpower to keep track of it all but Ahmed’s version of events solidified around two main plot threads. First, there’s what’s happening with Scheherazade and Shahryar as their khanate is threatened by the Oghuz Turks and the larger Muslim world is under attack by European Crusaders. (Saladin has an extended role in this plotline.) Second, we are treated to the extended adventures of Jauhara, the daughter of an Egyptian governor, who finds herself in the middle of a mind-bending battle between good and evil. At every turn, Scheherazade and Jauhara have to find their way through other people’s wars to set the world aright again.
The more I read of Every Rising Sun, the more I loved it. Scheherazade pulled me in, too, with her clever problem-solving and diplomacy. Her world is one where everyone has a hammer and every problem is a nail and she’s the only person who bothers to rummage around in the rest of the toolbox to see if there’s a way out that doesn’t involve lots of casualties. But this book isn’t just about cleverness. It’s also about love and sacrifice. Scheherazade wouldn’t have embarked on her wild plan if she didn’t love the women of her country, if she didn’t want to watch Bam tear itself apart while the khan ran mad, and if she still didn’t carry the hope that maybe Shahryar could find it in himself to love her back.
Every Rising Sun is a stunning, beautifully written, high-drama novel that I can’t praise strongly enough. Readers, grab this one as soon as you can and let Scheherazade sweep you away with her stories.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
