The Moor's account a novel

Brings us the imagined memoirs of the first black explorer of America--a Moroccan slave whose testimony was left out of the official record. In 1527, the conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez sailed from the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda with a crew of six hundred men and nearly a hundred horses. His g...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lalami, Laila, 1968- (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language:English
Published: New York : Pantheon Books, [2014]
Edition:First edition.
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Summary:Brings us the imagined memoirs of the first black explorer of America--a Moroccan slave whose testimony was left out of the official record. In 1527, the conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez sailed from the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda with a crew of six hundred men and nearly a hundred horses. His goal was to claim what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States for the Spanish crown and, in the process, become as wealthy and famous as Hernán Cortés. But from the moment the Narváez expedition landed in Florida, it faced peril--navigational errors, disease, starvation, as well as resistance from indigenous tribes. Within a year there were only four survivors: the expedition's treasurer, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca; a Spanish nobleman named Alonso del Castillo Maldonado; a young explorer named Andrés Dorantes de Carranza; and Dorantes's Moroccan slave, Mustafa al-Zamori, whom the three Spaniards called Estebanico. These four survivors would go on to make a journey across America that would transform them from proud conquis-tadores to humble servants, from fearful outcasts to faith healers.
Physical Description:323 pages ; 25 cm
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN:9780307911667
0307911667
Author Notes:Laila Lalami was born and raised in Morocco. She is the author of the short story collection Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits and the novels Secret Son and The Moor's Account. Her essays and opinion pieces have appeared in several publications including the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, The Guardian, and The New York Times. She is an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California at Riverside.

(Bowker Author Biography)