The Moor's Account

by Laila Lalami

PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • The imagined memoirs of the first black explorer of America—this "stunning [book] sheds light on all of the possible the New World exploration stories that didn’t make history” (Huffington Post).

In these pages, Laila Lalami brings us the invented memoirs Mustafa al-Zamori, called Estebanico. The slave of a Spanish conquistador, Estebanico sails for the Americas with his master, Dorantes, as part of a danger-laden expedition to Florida. Within a year, Estebanico is one of only four crew members to survive.

As he journeys across America with his Spanish companions, the Old World roles of slave and master fall away, and Estebanico remakes himself as an equal, a healer, and a remarkable storyteller. His tale illuminates the ways in which our narratives can transmigrate into history—and how storytelling can offer a chance at redemption and survival.

• ISBN10: 0804170622
• ISBN13: 9780804170628
• Publish Date: 18 August 2015 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Vintage Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780804170628

Reviews

[Lianne]

I received an ARC from the publishers in exchange for an honest review. This review in its entirety was originally posted at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2014/09/17/review-the-moors-account/

I don't know anything about Panfilo de Narvaez' expedition, so I was intrigued by this novel. The choice of telling the story from Mustafa’s perspective was what intrigued me about the book, and provides the author with creative room to approach the expedition and the experiences of these characters from another angle.

The storytelling itself was very interesting, initially going back and forth between the exploration in the New World and flashbacks to Mustafa’s story prior to his inclusion in the expedition. I honestly found his backstory more interesting than present events in the New World, which in the process revealed the realities of slavery and the times in which he lived in. But his story in the “present day” of the exploration was also revealing and just as gritty: the hunger they experienced, disease, the in-fighting amongst the survivors, the uncertain terrain they faced…It was all quite realistic and brutal.

Overall,The Moor’s Account was a fascinating look at 14th century Spain and the experiences of being on a New World expedition from a different perspective.