1001 Nights & Other Short Stories

The sultan faced a dilemma. He dared not fall in love again, yet he hated to be alone. His solution? Take a new bride each night—and execute her the following dawn! Into the fray runs Shahrazad, a clever young storyteller who volunteers to be the sultan's next bride. She now faces the ultimate test of her talents. Can she spin a tale magical enough to save lives—including her own?

This retelling of the classic tale, adapted as ‘Nights: The Radio Play’ broadcast on ICRT, brings Shahrazad’s legend to modern readers. Along the way it illuminates the dazzling orchestral showpiece by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov that the tale inspired. Ideally suited to oral storytelling, this new expanded edition offers the story in both its original version and in a dialogue version for four readers.

Also included in this volume: ‘Five Vignettes’, a series of scenes that trace a journey from Florida’s Space Coast in the heyday of Apollo to the Taiwan Sunflower student rallies of 2014; ‘Five Vignettes,’ ‘A Beachside Psalm,’ and a bonus preview excerpt of ‘The Blacksnake,’ a new novella.
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‘An engrossing retelling of this familiar backstory of ‘The Arabian Nights’, entirely suitable as preparation for listening to Rimsky-Korsakov’s celebrated orchestral tone-poem ‘Scheherazade’ (an alternative spelling of the protagonist’s name).’
– David Daniels, author of ‘Orchestral Music’