A New York Times Notable Book
In this stunning work of historical fiction, Laila Lalami 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