The Enchantress of Florence
By Salman Rushdie
Jonathan Cape £18.99, 357 pages
FT bookshop price: £15.19

What on earth is Salman Rushdie’s ninth novel about? It’s not a question that reviewers, armed with the faux omniscience that accompanies an early proof copy, are supposed to ask. But bewilderment will be the initial response of most readers.