Angelica Lost and Found

In Ariosto's epic 16th-century poem "Orlando Furioso", the beautiful Angelica, chained, naked, to a rock and menaced by a sea monster is rescued by the valiant Ruggiero, riding a 'hippogriff', the offspring of a griffin and a mare – an entirely imaginary winged creature (as readers of "Harry Potter" know). Volatore, as this hippogriff calls himself, has escaped the poem in which he has been confined for centuries and is determined to find his Angelica, even if it takes him to the 21st century and involves some shape-shifting. He lands in contemporary San Francisco and the first person he sets eyes on is Angelica Greenberg, the Jewish owner of a San Franciscan art gallery, who has just dumped her fiance. Volatore rises to her window and they hit it off big-time. But no sooner have they met and fallen in love than events conspire to separate the two so that Volatore must not only seek Angelica but also find the perfect form in which to consummate his undying love. The first is too masculine, the second not enough so, but will the third be just right, and how will Angelica reconcile the imaginary and the real in the perfect lover? "Angelica Lost and Found" contains the familiar drollery, the marvellous turn of phrase, the aesthetic insights and the romance of Russell Hoban, but it also contains a lively, life-enhancing wisdom that is all of its own.