You Dreamed of Empires
Álvaro Enrigue author Natasha Wimmer translator
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:11th Jan '24
£18.99
Available for immediate dispatch.
‘A lively, arresting read’ The Times
In 1519, Conquistador Hernán Cortés and his troops ride into the floating city of Tenoxtitlan – today’s Mexico City – in this hallucinatory, revelatory, colonial revenge story.
Invited to a ceremonial meal with the steely princess Atotoxtli, sister and wife of the emperor Moctezuma, the Spanish nearly bungle their entrance into the city and its labyrinthine palace. Soon, one of Cortés’s captains, Jazmín Caldera, begins to question the ease with which they were welcomed, and wonders at the risks of getting out alive, much less conquering the empire.
Moctezuma himself is at a political, spiritual and physical crossroads, relying on hallucinogens in a quest for any kind of answer from the gods. When Cortés and Moctezuma meet, two worlds, empires, languages, and possible futures collide.
You Dreamed of Empires brings to life Tenoxtitlan at its height – and reimagines its destiny.
It sets afire the moment of conquest and turns it into a moment of revolution, in a novel so electric and so unique that it feels like a dream.
Translated by Natasha Wimmer
Parts of the novel play like an Aztec West Wing, taking us deep into the political manoeuvrings of the royal court but blending its particularities with 21st-century psychology. It’s a rich approach that achieves a hallucinatory vividness * Guardian *
The translator… Natasha Wimmer brilliantly brings the author’s playfulness and idiomatic humour to life for an English-language readership. The result is a triumph of solemnity-busting erudition and mischievous invention that will delight and titillate * Financial Times *
A mischievous fantasy… Enrigue plunges exuberantly into the revisionist speculation that rehabilitates Indiginous awareness and agency * Times Literary Supplement *
You Dreamed of Empires is a lively, arresting read – if 2024 brings more novels as original as this one, it will be a good year * The Times *
An eclectic work of exceptional originality * Skinny *
ISBN: 9781787303805
Dimensions: 222mm x 144mm x 24mm
Weight: 346g
224 pages