Orlando in the Cities

"With a delicious blend of prose, verse, and poetic syntax, author Sebastian Michael takes you on a wild rollercoaster spread across two millennia through monumental events that changed the course of history. ... Highly recommended."

– Pikasho Deka, Readers' Favourite (5 Stars) 
(Read the full review below)


Orlando, beautiful but lazy shepherd boy on Crete, is tasked by the gods to find out which city is the most perfect. 

His journey takes him to Alexandria, where he studies with Euclid, Florence, where he sits for a portrait by da Vinci, London, where he falls in love with Russian princess, Paris where—now mysteriously turned woman—she joins the march on Versailles, Vienna, where she attracts the curiosity of a Dr Freud and New York, where, now man again, but experimenting with drag, he encounters the ups and downs of Warhol's Factory circle, before finally, without gender or agenda Orlando becomes simply Orlando.

A playful literary odyssey through 2500 years of Western civilisation.

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*****
Reviewed By Pikasho Deka for Readers’ Favorite
Orlando in the Cities by Sebastian Michael is a literary novel inspired by Virginia Woolf's Orlando. The gods of the Greek pantheon fiercely debate as to who among them is the patron of the perfect city on Earth. To solve their dilemma, they chose Orlando, a humble shepherd, who must travel to the greatest cities across two millennia to come up with an answer. After studying under Euclid in Alexandria, Orlando visits Florence during the Renaissance Movement, where he becomes enamored with the city's art and culture. In London, under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth, Orlando falls for a Russian princess named Sasha and converses with the likes of Shakespeare and Jonson. After mysteriously becoming a woman in Paris, Orlando marches alongside other women to Versailles and ends up romancing Maximilien de Robespierre.

With a delicious blend of prose, verse, and poetic syntax, author Sebastian Michael takes you on a wild rollercoaster spread across two millennia through monumental events that changed the course of history. Orlando in the Cities is a journey to explore the human condition through the lens of different cultures and civilizations over time. The author uses different styles and voices to give each chapter a distinct tone and feel that add an extra layer of authenticity to the narrative. With each chapter, Orlando undergoes drastic changes both physically and as a person in general. The gradual evolution of his personality was very captivating to read. I was also pleasantly surprised by the humor sprinkled throughout the pages. Highly recommended.