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The Moor's Account

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The Moor's Account

By: Laila Lalami
Narrated by: Neil Shah
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A New York Times Notable Book.

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. In 1527 the conquistador Pnfilo de Narvez sailed from the port of Sanlcar de Barrameda with a crew of 600 men and nearly a hundred horses. His goal was to claim what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States for the Spanish crown and, in the process, become as wealthy and famous as Hernn Corts. But from the moment the Narvez expedition landed in Florida, it faced peril--navigational errors, disease, starvation, as well as resistance from indigenous tribes. Within a year there were only four survivors: the expedition's treasurer, lvar Nez Cabeza de Vaca; a Spanish nobleman named Alonso del Castillo Maldonado; a young explorer named Andrs Dorantes de Carranza; and Dorantes' Moroccan slave, Mustafa al-Zamori, whom the three Spaniards called Estebanico. These four survivors would go on to make a journey across America that would transform them from proud conquistadores to humble servants, from fearful outcasts to faith healers.

The Moor's Account brilliantly captures Estebanico's voice and vision, giving us an alternate narrative for this famed expedition. As the dramatic chronicle unfolds, we come to understand that, contrary to popular belief, black men played a significant part in New World exploration, and Native American men and women were not merely silent witnesses to it.

In Laila Lalami's deft hands, Estebanico's memoir illuminates the ways in which stories can transmigrate into history, even as storytelling can offer a chance for redemption and survival.

©2014 Laila Lalami (P)2014 Audible Inc. Action & Adventure Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Islamic Heritage Latino American Literary Fiction United States World Literature
Compelling Story • Unique Perspective • Convincing Character Voices • Rich Historical Fiction • Superb Vocal Performance
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Struggled to finish it. I kept waiting to find out what happens to the main character.

Very long descriptive story. Tiresome.

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A really engaging and complex story. I loved every word. and will probably read again!

loved reading the history from another perspective

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Unfortunately a little soap operaish for my tastes. One dimensional characters and predictable. Too bad.

Compelling story

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Anyone who grew up in Texas, as I did, and attended a public Junior High School remembers the requisite Texas History course. The most fascinating events to come out of that class were the Alamo, of course, and the story of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. As the treasurer and royal representative of the ill-fated Spanish exploratory expedition led by Panfilo de Narvaez, he was one of only four known surviviors. The others included two Spanish officers and noblemen, one of whom was Andreas Dorantes, who owned as a slave, the fourth survivor, a Moor named Mustafa al-Zamori, whom his master renamed Esteban. These four eventually became the first Europeans, and, of course, first African, to wander across the future states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Later, being found by a group of Spanish slave traders in present day Sonora, Mexico, they ended their eight year rambling trek in the capital of New Spain, present day Mexico City.

This outstanding work of historical fiction shows the duplicitous nature of these Spanish would-be conquistadors as seen in their avowed goal to bring Florida under the control of the King of Spain and bringing Christianity to the natives which contrasted with their more obvious self-serving goals of gold, personal wealth, and fame. The Narvaez expedition of 300 men, which landed in Florida near Tampa Bay in April of 1528, completely underestimated both the physical endurance required to navigate through that land as well as the ability of the native tribes to defend themselves. Viewed through the eyes of Esteban, with flashbacks to his days growing up and working as a merchant in Morocco, Neil Shah delivers a 5-star narration, giving the main Spanish characters distinctive voices along with Esteban’s haunting voice and those of several native characters. The story follows Esteban through the miseries of how he became a slave in Spain, traveling to the New World, suffering through the decisions of Narvaez and others that doomed the expedition, and then the struggles thereafter. All the while “The Moor’s” desire to regain his freedom is paramount in his thoughts and deeds.

My only criticism of the story line was there were infrequent descriptions of the lands themselves once having left Florida, so one had difficulty determining exactly where they were geographically, since movement through time was based on moving from tribe to tribe ever westwards. At some point they moved across plains to mountains and eventually to Culican on the Pacific Coast without any geographical references. That said, the fascinating depiction via Esteban of the characters, events, and trials of these four men who end up lost in a 16th century landscape of the present U.S. southwest is an engrossing and entertaining read. The nature of humanity in all its forms of good, evil and everything in between are there.

Terrific read evoking 16th century New World life

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Well-written historical novel based on true events in the early period of Spanish exploration and conquest in the Americas. If you are interested in this time period, you will like this book. Don't expect an action novel. The themes of the novel have more to do with identity, intercultural relationships, and personal journey.

Neil Shah does an excellent job of narrating. He provides convincing and distinct voices for the many Spanish, Native American, and North African characters.

Well Written and Performed historical novel

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I love historical fiction done well. I know much of this is fiction from the author’s imagination since Mustafa did not actually leave a written account. I assume she combined parts of the known account with her imagination of Mustafa’s account. I think she did a very believable job.

I loved this story

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this was a well researched, intimate, and human account of a historic moment. i loved every bit of it.

superb reader, excellent story

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The premise of this alone makes it stand out: a North African man, who’s had to sell himself into slavery to pay his family’s debts, arrives in 16th Century “New Spain” to serve as part of a Conquistador’s mission of conquest. On top of that, though, Lalami adds a thoughtful layer of what it means to tell history, and we’re left with an original and provocative story.

The premise here reminds me of Toni Morrison’s A Mercy. (If it is not as accomplished as that novel, don’t worry; very few things are.) Both of those books imagine the New World at a moment before it coalesced into a place capable of the sort of slavery we know. Each explores (and largely rejects) the possibility of friendship and partnership between people of different races, but each does so at a moment in American history before there is an America.

The best parts of this one come as the explorers get their first glimpses of a southern North America that, if familiar to us, is bewilderingly new to them. There may be a sameness to our experience of their discoveries – it does get difficult to distinguish one new tribe or one new river from another – but the group’s gradual diminishment changes their experience in ways that sustain the narrative. They lose their arrogance, and the nature of their encounter takes on an ever-changing tone.

Early on, the narrator notes of the would-be conquerors, “They gave speeches not to voice the truth but to create it.” They name everything they see as if they are in a world without history.

Later, once their hardships compel them to acknowledge the history and power of the land around them, they become more descriptive. The narrator even subtly mocks them for switching to a shorthand of “first river” or “second river” where once they thought of themselves as drawing a new map.

Lalami adds to that drama the sense that the very business of telling the group’s story follows a similar pattern. The arrogant tell their story and think of it as history in full. And, at least as I have learned the history, the Spanish story feels like the full and familiar one.

The central joy of this book is the realization that, without “the Moor’s account,” we have only a partial history of that awful and awesome time. It takes a black man, enslaved to the Spanish, to help us see those Native Americans in a new light. If the picaresque of this occasionally drags (but only occasionally) that implicit narrative correction to our history makes it all come together as a compelling and entertaining story.

The Rest of the Story

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The narration really elevates this one in this format, for me. The story is interesting too though I’ll be honest, I was mostly interested in learning about life in New Mexico and we barely got any of that. Overall it was an interesting narrative, felt well-researched but also the main character was maybe a little too virtuous to feel fully-realized as a character.

Great narration

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The story was well written, but the narrator, although he did a good job at distinguishing the voices of different characters, was otherwise monotonous and mechanical sounding when reading narration or any of the first person dialog, making the central character sound a little deadpan and emotionless.

good story, monotonous narration<br />

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