In a tiny farm on the edge of the miserable village of East Grasby, Isabella Nagg is trying to get on with her tiny, miserable existence. Dividing her time between tolerating her feckless husband, caring for the farms strange animals, cooking up scrunge, and crooning over her treasured pot of basil, Isabella cant help but think that there might be something more to life. When Mr. Nagg returns home with a spell book purloined from the local wizard, she thinks: what harm could a little magic do?
This debut novel by beloved rare bookseller and memoirist Oliver Darkshire reimagines a heroine of Boccaccios Decameron in a delightfully deranged world of talking plants, walking corpses, sentient animals, and shape-shifting sorcerers. As Isabella and her grouchy, cat-like companion set off to save the village from an entrepreneurial villain running a goblin-fruit Ponzi scheme, Darkshires tale revels in the ancient books and arcane folklore of a new and original kind of enchantment.
A delightful and entertaining story of self-discoveryas well as fungus, capitalism, and sorceryIsabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil is a story for those who cant help but find magic even in the oddest and most baffling circumstances.
