Arauco
A Novel
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
When in 1540 Pedro de Valdivia left Peru to conquer lands south, he took with him his beautiful mistress, Inés de Suárez. With him also rode his secretary, Juan de Cardeña, whose hopeless love of Inés stems from the same romances that inspired Don Quixote. Crossing the Atacama Desert and founding the city of Santiago, then taking their conquest south, the Spanish encounter the indomitable resistance of the Mapuche….
For the first time, Arauco recreates the invasion of the land now called Chile from both the Spanish and native points of view, so that its pages also include: Lautaro, the Mapuche youth who led his people to an epic victory; Ñamku, albino shaman of the Mapuche; his sworn enemy, the sorcerer Kurufil. And Arauco also tells of Raytrayen, the Mapuche girl Juan de Cardeña came to love….
Customer Reviews
A powerful historical novel and a great read
From the first pages of 'Arauco' on, you're in the hands of master story-teller John Caviglia as he brings to life the quintessential culture clash: Spanish conquistadors (male and female) vs the indigenous Mapuche in the 16th-century region we now call Chile. The worlds bridged by this extraordinary novel seem at first utterly irreconcilable as a magical, shamanic culture (with its own *language*, of course, with which the reader becomes more and more familiar) is invaded by outsiders in search of gold and glory. But nothing is ever quite what it seems. Let 'Arauco' surprise you, let it enchant you, heal you, and more. For 'Arauco' is also a story of love.... Highly recommended to those in search of the best in fiction.