What role does money—and the pursuit of money—play in this book? The Moor’s Account chronicles a hero’s journey into the unknown. . About This Guide The questions, discussion topics, and suggested reading list that follow are intended to enhance your group’s experience of reading Laila Lalami’s The Moor’s Account.We hope they will provide you with many ways of approaching this groundbreaking historical novel from the author of Secret Son and Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits. The book itself tells the Narvaez Expedition from a unique perspective. An “exquisite piece of historical fiction” (Winnipeg Free Press), The Moor’s Account is “brilliantly imagined fiction…rewritten to give us something that feels very like the truth” (Salman Rushdie). If the underdogs are given a chance to recount their own version of events, what would they say? Her essays and opinion pieces have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, The Guardian, and The New York Times, and in many anthologies. In 1527, the conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez left the port of San Lucar de Barrameda in Spain with a crew of more than five hundred men. The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami is a work of historical fiction following Estebanico, a Moroccan slave, who is one of four survivors of the failed Narváez expedition to colonise Spanish Florida in the sixteenth century. . . Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Telling the tale of his life in the New World, Mustafa carefully traces and details extreme travail … Each wrote his own account of the journey. . Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 21, 2019. The Moor’s Account is filled with brutalizing hardship and sudden, stunning violence. It is the nature of histories that they are usually told by those in power, the privileged and the prized, those with authority, a ready audience, and a voice. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read The Moor's Account: A Novel. As they journey northward, they face resistance by indigenous tribes, suffer from disease and starvation, and quarrel with one another. These accounts we call history. I hear deep resonances with Things Fall Apart by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe - the painful erosion of culture, identity and dignity when faith is imposed as an instrument of empire rather than offered as a possibility, a gift, a blessing. I like the way Laila Lalami tells a story. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. 200 pages good: 400 pages at least a 100 too far. Laila Lalami's The Moor's Account is historical fiction told from the perspective of the first Black explorer of America, an enslaved Muslim man from Morocco. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free. Y the Spanish. Please try again. A Moroccan slave named Estebanico was one of only four men to survive a 1528 expedition to America from Spain. A bravura performance of imagination and empathy, The Moor’s Account reverberates long after the final page.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Laila Lalami is the author of the short story collection Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award, and the novel Secret Son, which was on the Orange Prize long list. Langum Prize for American Historical Fiction, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Moor%27s_Account&oldid=985455762, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 26 October 2020, at 01:49. Map and Chronology. . . Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video! The Moor’s Account 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 … “The Moor’s Account,” which purports to tell this story from Estebanico’s perspective, stalls in parts and suffers from an anticlimactic final section, … Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America, Interior Chinatown (Vintage Contemporaries). . a narrative that braids points of view so intricately that they become one even as we’re constantly reminded of the separate and often contrary strands that render the whole.”. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. The Moor’s Account is a work of creativity and compassion, one which demonstrates the full might of Lalami’s talent as a writer.” —Aminatta Forna, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and Hurston Prize Legacy Award-winning author of The Memory of Love, Ancestor Stones, and The Devil That Danced on the Water Characters thinly drawn and the historic authorial voice, limited by its own cultural values, reduce the impact of this tale. 2. Vintage; Reprint edition (August 18, 2015). He is widely considered to be the first black explorer of America, but little is known about his early life except for one line in Cabeza de Vaca's chronicle: "The fourth [survivor] is Estebanico, an Arab Negro from Azamor. Offers a pungent alternative history that muses on the ambiguous power of words to either tell the truth or reshape it according to our desires.” —Los Angeles Times “Estebanico is a superb storyteller, capable of sensitive character appraisals and penetrating ethnographic detail.” —The Wall Street Journal “Feels at once historical and contemporary. Warts and all. "Maybe there is no true story, only imagined stories", Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 11, 2015. The Moor's Account, a fictional memoir by … To give the impression of historical authenticity without making the novel inaccessible to contemporary readers, Lalami decided to use words that belong to the register of the 16th century, but are still in use today. Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Moor's Account: 1. It’s a play on perspective in more ways than one.” —Ebony “Artfully conveys the politics and power dynamics of bondage. The Moor’s Account is the fictional memoir of Mustafa ibn Muhammad, a Moroccan slave that was part of a Castilian exploration group exploring La Florida. The Moor's Account is a novel by Laila Lalami. . a narrative that braids points of view so intricately that they become one even as we’re constantly reminded of the separate and often contrary strands that render the whole.” —The Los Angeles Review of Books “Richly rewarding.” —NPR “A bold and exhilarating bid to give a real-life figure muzzled by history the chance to have his say in fiction.” —San Francisco Chronicle  “[A] rich novel based on an actual, ill-fated 16th century Spanish expedition to Florida. The Moor's Account sheds light on all of the possible the New World exploration stories that didn't make history." Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. In 1527, Pánfilo de Navárez, a Spanish conqueror, led an expedition of 600 people into the New World. Fascinating and compelling. Please try again. Please try again. . . --Huffington Post "Lalami has once again shown why she is one of her generation's most gifted writers." . Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in, No Import Fees Deposit & $8.60 Shipping to Canada. In The Moor's Account, Laila Lalami tells the story of a 16th Century expedition in the New World from a slave's perspective. Mustafa is owned by Señor Dorantes, a captain assigned to the expedition. Within a year there are only four survivors: Cabeza de Vaca, the treasurer of the expedition; Alonso del Castillo, a young nobleman, Andrés de Dorantes, one of the captains; and his Moroccan slave, Mustafa, whom the other three Spaniards refer to as Estebanico. This Study Guide consists of approximately 53 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Moor's Account. Laila Lalami was born in Rabat and educated in Morocco, Great Britain, and the United States. Some years later, they are found by a party of Spanish slavers and brought to Mexico City, where they are asked to provide testimony about their journey—all except the slave, who tells his own story in the novel. . Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. Lalami sees the story [of Estebanico] as a form of moral and spiritual instruction that can lead to transcendence.” —The New York Times Book Review “Meticulously researched and inventive. The goal was to conquer land, claim it for Spain, subdue the indigenous population, and find gold. [1][2], The Moor's Account is a fictional memoir of Estebanico, the Moroccan slave who survived the Narvaez expedition and accompanied Cabeza de Vaca. Mosquito swarms, stomach afflictions, thirst, and dwindling rations reduce men to grizzled brutes. In what ways does this journey follow the conventions of the epic genre, and in what ways does it subvert them? Find all the books, read about the author, and more. . Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2016. One of the easiest ways to rewrite history is to resort to fiction. The expedition lands in Florida in the vicinity of what is now Tampa Bay. Necessary. An unusual topic for me. . The Moor’s Account brilliantly captures Estebanico’s voice and vision, giving us an alternate narrative for this famed expedition. The way the Moor’s account differs from the Spaniards is amazing. Thousands … . It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2021, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, Alternate History Science Fiction (Books). I couldn't stop reading! Very little is known about him beyond the fact that he was one of only four survivors of the ill-fated Narváez expedition. Necessary. We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Laila Lalami’s mesmerizing The Moor’s Account presents us a historical fiction that feels something like a plural totality . The Moor's Account: A Novel - Ebook written by Laila Lalami. “An exciting tale of wild hopes, divided loyalties, and highly precarious fortunes.” —The New Yorker“An absorbing story of one of the first encounters between Spanish conquistadores and Native Americans, a frightening, brutal, and much-falsified history that here, in her brilliantly imagined fiction, is rewritten to give us something that feels very like the truth.” —Salman Rushdie“Stunning. In the first half of the novel, The Moor’s Account alternates between two sets of stories: some chronicling the Narváez expedition, and others narrating Mustafa’s life prior to his arrival in the New World. The Narvaez Expedition is not familiar to me and anything I encounter about it after this will have the Moor's Account as a litmus paper. Freedom and comfort prove elusive, but his account (as imagined by Lalami) gives us the opportunity to see with clear eyes our well-traversed land for the first time. --Reza Aslan, author of Zealot "Compelling. . About the author: Laila Lalami. a narrative that braids points of view so intricately that they become one even as we're constantly reminded of the separate and often contrary strands that render the whole." Those interested in the history of the Spanish colonization of the Americas will find much to like in The Moor’s Account, as will lovers of good yarns of faraway lands and times.” —The Seattle Times “Excellent historical fiction. She avoided contractions because they appear too modern. It does not make it less true, but certainly less complete. The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami is a fictional account loosely based on the 1527 expedition from Spain to Florida of conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez. It was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist in 2015. The Moor’s Account (2014) is a fictionalized memoir of the first African explorer in the new world. Thus, the narrator begins his account with a basmala, notes the passage of time according to the Hegira calendar, uses Arabic units of measurement, and refers to places with their Arabic names. The Moor's Account illuminates the ways in which stories can transmigrate into history, and how storytelling can offer a chance for redemption, reinvention and survival. The Moor's Account - Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist in 2015. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 23, 2020. [4], Since the narrator is of Arabic origin, features typical of Arabic texts are used. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. . Of the four, his was the only testimony left off the record. www.lailalalami.com. For Lalami, storytelling is a primal struggle over power between the strong and the weak, between good and evil, and against forgetting. It rings with thunder!” —Gary Shteyngart “Laila Lalami’s radiant, arrestingly vivid prose instantly draws us into the world of the first black slave in the New World whose name we know—Estebanico. . I soon forgot that this is not an original account and could hear an authenticity in Mustafa's voice. . In most cases, items shipped from Amazon.com may be returned for a full refund. There was a problem loading your book clubs. The Moor’s Account sheds light on all of the possible the New World exploration stories that didn’t make history.” —Huffington Post   “Lalami has once again shown why she is one of her generation’s most gifted writers.” —Reza Aslan, author of Zealot“Compelling. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. She is the recipient of a British Council Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Lannan Residency Fellowship and is an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California at Riverside. . Publisher: Garnet Publishing (UK) Ltd OverDrive Read. Well written. Losing it meant losing my ties to all those things too.” ― Laila Lalami, The Moor's Account . The dialogue in the novel lacks quotation marks in order to replicate the style of Arabic manuscripts of the 16th century.[5]. In this historical novel, which cleverly employs flashbacks and first-person narration, author Laila Lalami imagines Mustafa telling his own story of endurance and survival. (A small irritation is the lack of punctuation for conversation). . Please try your request again later. The Moor’s Account won the American Book Award, the Arab-American Book Award, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Something went wrong. You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition. Under the leadership of Pánfilo de Narváez, the men leave their ships behind and travel inland to look for gold. Laila Lalami’s mesmerizing The Moor’s Account presents us a historical fiction that feels something like a plural totality . . At the Alhambra palace, Christopher Columbus receives his contract for the journey to the New World. What follows we know only from three Castilian accounts of the expedition. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Her writing is very engaging and very tender in presenting the characters. . It was a Began well establishing a sense of place and the past and the Moore's personal tragedy, but became rather picaresque with diminishing returns for the reader as each new tribe educated our European protagonist. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 20, 2015. Buttata's journey. . [3], The style of The Moor’s Account is shaped to resemble sixteenth-century travelogues. The imagined memoir Mustafa ibn Muhammad, Laila Lalami’s Moor’s Account gives voice to Mustafa, the first slave in the New World and the fourth survivor of the Navárez expedition. 897/1492: Fall of Granada.Tens of thousands of Jewish and Muslim refugees flee Andalusia and settle in Fez and beyond. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 9, 2019. . . . The Moor's Account brilliantly captures Estebanico's voice and vision, giving us an alternate narrative for this famed expedition. Together, these four survivors travel westward, crossing the continent and living among indigenous tribes, reinventing themselves along the way as faith healers. . The Moor’s Account returns us to the astonishing, terrifying world of light, heat and violence that Cabeza de Vaca described, seen this time through the eyes of … Well written with the highs and lows of survival, treatments of people and freedoms. Read this book using Google Play Books app on your PC, android, iOS devices. . . . . Eloquently examines the subjectivity of narrative and the creation and manipulation of the truth. Unable to add item to List. . The novel also recognizes that this telling necessarily de-prioritizes other marginalized voices. . ", The story is narrated in the first person by Mustafa ibn Muhammad ibn Abdussalam al-Zamori, a Moroccan slave who has been taken by his Spanish master, Andrés de Dorantes, on an expedition to the New World. . With this magnificent novel, Lalami, through fiction, has penned a revelation and tribute to truth.” —The Millions “Tremendous and powerful, The Moor’s Account is one of the finest historical novels I’ve encountered in a while. . . The Moor's Account A Novel (eBook) : Lalami, Laila : 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. Early on, Estebanico's father warns him that "trade would open the door to greed and greed was an inconsiderate guest; it … . Spaniards and Indians alike are whipped, beaten, shot with arrows, bled from slashed throats like butchered animals. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. The Moor's Account is a novel by Laila Lalami. Touching explorations of the Spanish conquest. She lives in Los Angeles. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. The conquest of southern America. The book centers a voice that has historically been left out of the record. Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2016. . . 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Start reading Kindle Books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required the... And quarrel with one another and Muslim refugees flee Andalusia and settle Fez... Slashed throats like butchered animals a Pulitzer Prize for fiction finalist in 2015 - Ebook written by Lalami... Leave their ships behind and travel inland to look for gold style of the record Alhambra palace, Columbus...

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