Civilizations: A Novel

An ambitious and highly entertaining novel of revisionist history from the author of the international bestseller HHhH Laurent Binets Civilizations is nothing less than a strangely believable counterfactual history of the modern world fizzing with ideas about colonization empire-building and the eternal human quest for domination. It is an electrifying novel by one of Europes most exciting writers. Freydis is a woman warrior and leader of a band of Viking explorers setting out to the south. They meet local tribes exchange skills are taken prisoner and get as far as Panama. But nobody ultimately knows what became of them. Fast forward five hundred years to 1492 and were reading the journals of Christopher Columbus mid-Atlantic on his own famous voyage of exploration to the Americas dreaming of gold and conquest. But he and his men are taken captive by Incas. Even as their suffering increases his faith in his superiority and in his mission is unshaken. Thirty years later Atahualpa the last Inca emperor arrives in Europe in the ships stolen from Columbus. He finds a continent divided by religious and dynastic quarrels the Spanish Inquisition Luthers Reformation capitalism the miracle of the printing press endless warmongering between the ruling monarchies and constant threat from the Turks. But most of all he finds downtrodden populations ready for revolution. Fortunately he has a recent bestseller as a guidebook to acquiring powerMachiavellis The Prince. The stage is set for a Europe ruled by Incas and Aztecs and for a great war that will change history forever.