An Inexplicable Story, Or, the Narrative of Questus Firmus Siculus

This is one of the most imaginative recent novels I have read. It deals with a mysterious manuscript written by one Questus Firmus Siculus, a hitherto unknown citizen of the early Roman Empire (even his praenomen "Questus" is unknown). The manuscript is discovered in the ruins of a Mayan temple complex, an obvious anomaly in itself. Through the fragmented manuscript, and various subsequent letters and stories from an eclectic, international group of sources over the ages, a fascinating adventure is revealed, as are many more mysteries and unanswerable questions. This novel gets better and better as it goes on and the pieces start falling into place.

An excellent novel with fascinating twists and more questions than answers, this book focuses on the memoirs of a first-century Roman citizen, Questus Firmus Siculus.When his autobiography is dicovered among Mayan ruins in the Honduras, Questus, a formerly unknown Roman, baffles the scientific community. The scrolls are undeniably real, but how could they have come so many thousands of miles over the Atlantic, when the Romans were thought to have ventured no farther west than Britain? The contents of the scrolls is even more puzzling. They reveal a new theory about the reason for Tiberius's banishment of Ovid, and explore a new possibility for the identity of Corinna, Ovid's lover in his collection of erotic poetry, Amores.With nods to Verne and Poe, Skvorecky flies through this imaginative romp with style and aplomb. Fabulous, entertaining, and literary all at once!