by Laila Lalami
First published 2014
Mustafa al-Zamori finds himself among just four men left alive after the catastrophic Narváez expedition crashes into Florida in 1527. The ambitious conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez had set sail from Spain with six hundred soldiers and nearly a hundred horses, dreaming of riches like those Hernán Cortés claimed in Mexico. Instead, navigational mistakes, disease, hunger, and fierce resistance from native peoples destroyed the force within months. Now Mustafa travels alongside the three surviving Spaniards: treasurer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, nobleman Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, and explorer Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, who owns him. The four men must cross an unknown continent to reach safety. Their journey strips away everything they once were. Proud conquerors become servants. Outcasts become healers. For Mustafa, called Estebanico by his Spanish companions, the trek becomes something more than survival. It becomes a chance to tell his own story.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, adventure, cultural
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Florida, Spain
Period: 1527
321 pages · Hardcover · Pantheon
Content warnings: colonialism