You •might• WIN KALILA AND DIMNA #2 for FREE by entering this July 4th Goodreads Kindle Giveaway — https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/277298
BUT if you already subscribe to •kindle unlimited• . . . .
(A). . . .then don't bother: You can immediately download for FREE this updated classic from the deep olden days of loud and boisterous storytelling, before printing and reading even existed — when people TOLD their stories into the same air breathed [inspired?] by their often enraptured audience!
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(B) And •kindle unlimited• subscribers can ALSO download for FREE the first in Wood's highly-praised series: KALILA AND DIMNA #1 — Fables of Friendship and Betrayal (with an Introduction by 2007 Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing). Here's that link: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002AQTGM0
WHAT'S KALILA AND DIMNA ABOUT?
Once upon a time a heedless and powerful young king named Dabschelim ruled over India. One day he came upon a hidden treasure left by a long-dead king. With it was a letter addressed to him. How had the letter come to be there? And what did it mean?
To solve the mystery, King Dabschelim summoned the wisest (although initially the rudest) man in his kingdom, Dr Bidpai, to his side. And so begins the tales of KALILA AND DIMNA #1, illustrated by Margaret Kilrenny.
Of all the storytelling collections from India it is the ancient "sui generis" group of animal (including human ones!) fables found in the •The Panchatantra• — and its Buddhist inspiration, •The Jatakas Tales• — that have travelled furthest, inspiring global fiction the most.
KALILA AND DIMNA, in innumerable popular guises, migrated East to West from one culture to another for (+/-) 2400 years along the Silk Road, probably — more often than not — as campfire voices electrifying the cold, dark air.
Such exchanges were LOUD, full-bodied impro travellers' tales rather than refined Gutenberg text whispering softly page-to-eye-into the more silent reader's imaginative brain.
Art Ref: search "kalila and dimna" in Google Images for a selection of classical manuscript illustrations.
You'll find Reviews about this Giveaway on Ramsay Wood's website — some from Ursula Le Guin, Gore Vidal, San Francisco Chronicle and Lisa Alther.
Good Luck and enjoy (perhaps?) — discovering something you may never have imagined existed!