The Moor's Account: A Novel

About this book

Longlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize Nominated for the 2016 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award A Pulitzer Prize Finalist A New York Times Notable Book A Wall Street Journal Top 10 Book of the Year An NPR Great Read of 2014 A Kirkus Best Fiction Book of the Year In this stunning work of historical fiction Laila Lalami brings us the imagined memoirs of the first black explorer of Americaa Moroccan slave whose testimony was left out of the official record. In 1527 the conquistador Pnfilo de Narvez sailed from the port of Sanlcar 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 Hernn Corts. But from the moment the Narvez expedition landed in Florida it faced perilnavigational errors disease starvation as well as resistance from indigenous tribes. Within a year there were only four survivors: the expeditions treasurer lvar Nez Cabeza de Vaca; a Spanish nobleman named Alonso del Castillo Maldonado; a young explorer named Andrs Dorantes de Carranza; and Dorantess 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. The Moors Account brilliantly captures Estebanicos voice and vision giving us an alternate narrative for this famed expedition. As the dramatic chronicle unfolds we come to understand that contrary to popular belief black men played a significant part in New World exploration and Native American men and women were not merely silent witnesses to it. In Laila Lalamis deft hands Estebanicos memoir illuminates the ways in which stories can transmigrate into history even as storytelling can offer a chance for redemption and survival.