You Dreamed of Empires by Enrigue, Álvaro

"Enrigue's genius lies in his ability to bring readers close to its tangled knot of priests, mercenaries, warriors and princesses while adding a pinch of biting humor." --Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Los Angeles Times

"Riotously entertaining... A triumph of solemnity-busting erudition and mischievous invention that will delight and titillate." --Financial Times

From the visionary author of Sudden Death, a hallucinatory, revelatory colonial revenge story.

One morning in 1519, conquistador Hern?n Cort?s enters the city of Tenochtitlan - today's Mexico City. Later that day, he will meet the emperor Moctezuma in a collision of two worlds, two empires, two languages, two possible futures.

Cort?s is accompanied by his captains, his troops, his prized horses, and his two translators: Friar Aguilar, a taciturn friar, and Malinalli, an enslaved, strategic Nahua princess. After nearly bungling their entrance to the city, the Spaniards are greeted at a ceremonial welcome meal by the steely Aztec princess Atotoxtli, sister and wife of Moctezuma. As they await their meeting with the emperor - who is at a political and spiritual crossroads, and relies on hallucinogens to get by - Cort?s and his entourage are ensconced in the labyrinthine palace. Soon, one of Cort?s's captains, Jazm?n Caldera, overwhelmed by the grandeur of the place, begins to question the ease with which they were welcomed into the city, and wonders at the chances of getting out alive, much less conquering the empire. And what if... they don't?

You Dreamed of Empires brings Tenochtitlan to life at its height, and reimagines its destiny. The incomparably original ?lvaro Enrigue sets afire the moment of conquest and turns it into a moment of revolution, a restitutive, fantastical counterattack, in a novel so electric and so unique that it feels like a dream.

Author: Álvaro Enrigue
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Published: 01/09/2024
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.60w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780593544792

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 08/01/2023 pg. 3
Publishers Weekly 09/04/2023
Kirkus Reviews 11/01/2023
Library Journal 01/01/2024 pg. 66
Booklist 01/01/2024 pg. 41
Shelf Awareness 01/19/2024

About the Author
Álvaro Enrigue is a Mexican writer who was a Cullman Center Fellow and a Fellow at the Princeton University Program in Latin American Studies. He has taught at New York University, Princeton University, the University of Maryland, and Columbia University. His work has appeared in The New York Times, n+1, London Review of Books, and El País, among others. His books include Sudden Death, and have been awarded the Herralde Prize, the Barcelona Prize, and the Poniatowska Prize. He lives in New York with his family and teaches Latin American Literature at Hofstra University.

Natasha Wimmer's translations include Álvaro Enrigue's Sudden Death, Nona Fernández's Space Invaders and The Twilight Zone, and Roberto Bolaño's The Savage Detectives and 2666. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.