The Pope’s Rhinoceros

THE BOOK: In February 1516, a Portugese ship sank with the loss of all hands a mile off the coast of Italy. The Nostra Senora da Adjuda had sailed 14000 miles from the Indian kingdom Gujarat: her mission, to deliver a rhinoceros to the Pope. The Pope’s Rhinoceros tells the stories which culminate in this bizarre incident. Ranging from the Baltic Sea to a flyblown conlony in India, from a tribe hidden in the African rain forest to atrocities committed in obscure town in Tuscany, Norfolk’s brilliant novel holds up the true history of the rhinoceros as a mirror to the fantasies and obsessions of the Renaissance.