You Dreamed of Empires - Hardcover

by ﾁlvaro Enrigue (Author), Natasha Wimmer (Translator)

"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疣 Cort駸 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駸 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 fo 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駸 and his entourage are ensconced in the labyrinthine palace. Soon, one of Cort駸's captains, Jazm匤 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 ﾁ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 Biography

ﾁlvaro 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 Pa﨎, 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 ﾁlvaro Enrigue's Sudden Death, Nona Fern疣dez's Space Invaders and The Twilight Zone, and Roberto Bola's The Savage Detectives and 2666. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.