“Tell Them of Battles, Kings and Elephants,” by Mathias Énard
Mathias Énard is one of France’s greatest living writers, and this book is a master class in short fiction. We follow Michelangelo in Constantinople in 1506 after he was hired by the sultan of the Ottoman Empire to construct a bridge over the Golden Horn. It’s simply superb, with a few solid digs at da Vinci.
MATT KELIHER, Subtext Books
Shelftalkers are recommendations from booksellers, usually in the form of notecards pinned up in bookstores. Take a jpg of one and e-mail it to books@startribune.com.
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