Four Nails

Berger’s well-researched and richly imagined historical opens in 227 BCE India and follows the life of Ashoka, a young elephant trainer sold into slavery by his family and sent to Carthage to fight in war. Ashoka is the younger of two sons in a warrior caste family that runs an elephant camp in central India; he’s sent with Syrian traders on a long journey westward. On the way, they stop at the town of Exhandahar where Ashoka trains and then sets free the supposedly mad elephant that he names Four Nails. From Carthage, after years of slavery working in the elephant camp of Senator Mintho, Ashoka is sent to New Carthage in Iberia. There, he is reunited with Four Nails, whom Hannibal himself names Surus. Ashoka leads Hannibal’s elephant corps through skirmishes and trials over the Alps and into Italy during the Second Punic War (218–201 BCE). Once the elephants die, brought down by wounds or disease, Hannibal releases and rewards Ashoka, who eventually makes his way home. Berger describes each location with care, from its natural environment to the customs of its people, giving his tale a certain vibrancy. Readers interested in the ancient world, and specifically ancient warfare, will find much to savor here. (BookLife)