"It is 1204, and Constantinople is being sacked and burned by the knights of the Fourth Crusade. Amid the carnage and confusion Baudolino saves a Byzantine historian and high court official from certain death at the hands fo the crusading warriors, and proceeds to tell his own fantastical story."

Fantastical is the word - full of historical accuracy and inaccuracy, fantasy, and downright lying. But also full of human pathos. I'm glad I waited until now to read this one - you have to be in the right frame of mind to extract the full richness from this tale, I doubt I would have enjoyed it nearly as much if I'd been looking forward to, say, a Stephanie Plum book! A truly delightful tale, beautifully written - although, of course, this is a translation.

Caught in Holywells Bar at weekend meetup - this looks intriguing.

Thanks to WistfulDragon

Goodness me, I've had this since 2006! Feeling in a more literary mood than I have for a while I embarked on this expecting something as compelling as The Name of the Rose or Foucault's Pendulum. I'm afraid I was disappointed and this is the first book in years I've actually given up on after getting about half way through. I just couldn't engage with Baudolino and his story, I found it quite a drag and the characters irritating. As WistfulDragon suggests, you may have to be in the right frame of mind for this, and clearly I'm not at the moment. I may return to it at a later date.