Description
DATE OF RELEASE: 10 JUL 2025
A spellbinding history of South America.
'A luscious, erudite romp ... a tour de force of literary mezcla' ALICE ALBINIA
'An unputdownable delight' JON LEE ANDERSON
'A magnificent contribution to the Latin American canon' MARIE ARANA
In this sweeping exploration of the continent's forgotten past, Laurence Blair takes as his waymarks nine countries that can’t be found on a map: vanished realms, half-imagined utopias and dismembered homelands. Looking beyond modern borders, he travels to each in turn – on foot and horseback, by rail and river – to weave an epic of survival, resistance and revolution.
Blair’s journey spans five centuries and thousands of miles, ranging from ancient Amazonian civilisations and a rebel Inca dynasty in the Peruvian jungle – via a Brazilian Wakanda that defied slavery, Bolivia’s landlocked navy and the Patagonian power that defeated the Spanish Empire – to the African freedom fighters who marched over the Andes from Argentina, and the Napoleon of the New World who led Paraguay to its ruin. This is the story of South America as is rarely told: at the epicentre of global history and the forging of the modern world.
Paperback
Publication: 10 Jul 2025, Vintage
ISBN: 9781529931709
Extent: 448 pages
