Publisher's Synopsis
In "a fable of fantastical lushness" (New York Times Book Review), Levi weaves together the stories of two strangers and their mysterious travel agent to present an extraordinarily crafted revisionist history of the discovery of America, combining the erudition of Umberto Eco with the ingenious storytelling of A Thousand and One Nights. Holland and Hanni have come to Spain for two very different reasons. They have nothing in common except they share the same travel agent, Ben. Stranded overnight by an airport strike, Hanni and Holland discover that they are connected by a strange web of history and happenstance-a common labyrinth that stretches back to World War II, the Spanish Inquisition, and beyond. A Guide for the Perplexed is a collection of the letters these women write to their mysterious, unseen travel agent-a long night's worth of confessions, a tapestry of tales chasing tales, including an untold saga of Columbus' voyage to the New World, stories of war and lost loves, lost children, lost Jews, and the true origins of baseball.
