You Dreamed of Empires
A Novel
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3.9 • 81 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF 2024
A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR
"Short, strange, spiky and sublime.” —Dwight Garner, New York Times
“Funny, ghastly, eye-opening, marvelous.” —Wall Street Journal
From the visionary author of Sudden Death, a hallucinatory, revelatory colonial revenge story.
One morning in 1519, conquistador Hernán Cortés enters the city of Tenochtitlan – today's Mexico City. Later that day, he will meet the emperor Moctezuma in a collision of two worlds, two empires, two languages, two possible futures.
Cortés is accompanied by his captains, his troops, his prized horses, and his two translators: Friar Aguilar, a taciturn friar, and Malinalli, an enslaved, strategic Nahua princess. After nearly bungling their entrance to the city, the Spaniards are greeted at a ceremonial welcome meal by the steely Aztec princess Atotoxtli, sister and wife of Moctezuma. As they await their meeting with the emperor – who is at a political and spiritual crossroads, and relies on hallucinogens to get by – Cortés and his entourage are ensconced in the labyrinthine palace. Soon, one of Cortés’s captains, Jazmín Caldera, overwhelmed by the grandeur of the place, begins to question the ease with which they were welcomed into the city, and wonders at the chances of getting out alive, much less conquering the empire. And what if... they don't?
You Dreamed of Empires brings Tenochtitlan to life at its height, and reimagines its destiny. The incomparably original Álvaro Enrigue sets afire the moment of conquest and turns it into a moment of revolution, a restitutive, fantastical counterattack, in a novel so electric and so unique that it feels like a dream.
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.
Customer Reviews
Hard to follow.
I wish I could follow along better but I struggled with the names and the lack of quotation marks makes it hard to read. I got a few chuckles out of it!
Riotous and lyrical storytelling
What a memorable take on the world-shifting encounter between Moctezuma and Cortés. At times hallucinogenic and hilarious, You Dreamed of Empires made me laugh, ponder, and want more.
Nonsense
I am sure hallucination’s were used in the writing of this book. Do not waste your time