You Dreamed of Empires
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
'An Aztec West Wing' GUARDIAN
'A triumph' FINANCIAL TIMES
'A mischievous fantasy' TLS
'Glorious' i-D
In 1519, Conquistador Hernán Cortés and his troops ride into the floating city of Tenoxtitlan – today’s Mexico City – in this hallucinatory, revelatory, colonial revenge story.
Invited to a ceremonial meal with the steely princess Atotoxtli, sister and wife of the emperor Moctezuma, the Spanish nearly bungle their entrance into the city and its labyrinthine palace. Soon, one of Cortés’s captains, Jazmín Caldera, begins to question the ease with which they were welcomed, and wonders at the risks of getting out alive, much less conquering the empire.
Moctezuma himself is at a political, spiritual and physical crossroads, relying on hallucinogens in a quest for any kind of answer from the gods. When Cortés and Moctezuma meet, two worlds, empires, languages, and possible futures collide.
You Dreamed of Empires brings to life Tenoxtitlan at its height – and reimagines its destiny.
It sets afire the moment of conquest and turns it into a moment of revolution, in a novel so electric and so unique that it feels like a dream.
Translated by Natasha Wimmer
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Enrigue (Sudden Death) once again reimagines history in this dynamic and stimulating chronicle of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés's expedition into the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan in 1519. Despite Cortés's blunder of trying to hug Emperor Moctezuma upon their initial greeting, Moctezuma welcomes the Spanish expedition into his palace, where the party waits for their official meeting with him. The perspective jumps between a host of characters on both sides, including Moctezuma's sister and wife, the princess Atotoxtli, who tries to counsel the emperor despite his melancholy and reliance on hallucinogenic drugs; and Jazmín Caldera, Cortés's third in command who gets lost in the mazelike palace on a quest to find the expedition's horses. As everyone waits for the fateful meeting, Cortés's translator wonders whether the Spaniards are "visitors or prisoners." Enrigue sustains a seductive yet ominous tone that evokes a persistent threat of violence, and he caps things off with a dizzying climactic scene that offers an alternative to the historical record and dovetails with the book's heavy dose of hallucinogens. Flexing his narrative muscle, Enrigue brings the past to vivid, brain-melting life.
