The Moor's Account - Brossura

Laila Lalami

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1859644279 ISBN 13: 9781859644270

Casa editrice: Periscope, 2015

Riassunto

In 1527 the Spanish conquistador Panfilo de Narvaez arrived on the coast of modern-day Florida with hundreds of settlers, and claimed the region for Spain. Almost immediately, the expedition was decimated by a combination of navigational errors, disease, starvation and fierce resistance from indigenous tribes. Within a year, only four survivors remained: three noblemen and a Moroccan slave called "Estebanico". The official record, set down after a reunion with Spanish forces in 1536, contains only the three freemen's accounts. The fourth, to which the title of Laila Lalami's masterful novel alludes, is Estebanico's own. Lalami gives us Estebanico as history never did: as Mustafa, the vibrant merchant from Azemmur forced into slavery and a new name, and reborn as the first black explorer of the Americas, discovering and being discovered by various tribes both hostile and compassionate. In Estebanico's telling, the survivors' journey across great swathes of the New World transforms would-be conquerors into humble servants and fearful outcasts into faith healers. He remains ever-observant, resourceful and hopeful that he might one day find his way back to his family, even as he experiences an unexpected (if ambiguous) camaraderie with his masters. The Moor's Account illuminates the ways in which stories can transmigrate into history, and how storytelling can offer a chance for redemption, reinvention and survival.

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Recensione:

'A story with extraordinary power. The Moor's Account is more than a good story, it s a great one: rich, vivid and gripping; a thoughtful investigation into how we frame the narratives of our own lives.' --The Guardian

'...a historical novel about which very serious people have been speaking as if it were the Holy Grail. It may well be: it is a terrific yarn about exploration, discovery, slave trading and the brutal destruction of native people in the name of civilization which is in fact unfettered brutality.' --The Financial Times

'Lalami has built a remarkable novel. The reader is gripped as the expedition lurches from disaster to disaster, a series of astonishing visual images held in an almost-cinematic exploration of the other.' --The Independent

L'autore:

Laila Lalami is the author of two other novels, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits and Secret Son, longlisted for the Orange Prize. Her essays and opinion pieces have appeared in The Guardian and The New York Times, among other publications. She is the recipient of a British Council Fellowship, and is currently an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California at Riverside.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Periscope
• Data di pubblicazione: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1859644279
• ISBN 13: 9781859644270
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 328