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Description
An ambitious and highly entertaining novel of revisionist history. Freydis is a woman warrior and leader of a band of Viking explorers setting out to the south. They meet local tribes, exchange skills, are taken prisoner, and get as far as Panama. But nobody ultimately knows what became of them. Fast forward five hundred years to 1492 and we're reading the journals of Christopher Columbus, mid-Atlantic on his own famous voyage of exploration to the Americas, dreaming of gold and conquest. But he and his men are taken captive by Incas. Even as their suffering increases, his faith in his superiority, and in his mission, is unshaken. Thirty years later, Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor, arrives in Europe in the ships stolen from Columbus. He finds a continent divided by religious and dynastic quarrels, the Spanish Inquisition, Luther's Reformation, capitalism, the miracle of the printing press, endless warmongering between the ruling monarchies, and constant threat from the Turks. But most of all he finds downtrodden populations ready for revolution. Fortunately, he has a recent bestseller as a guidebook to acquiring power--Machiavelli's The Prince. The stage is set for a Europe ruled by Incas and Aztecs, and for a great war that will change history forever.… (more)
Media reviews
Ïk wilde ze ( de Inca's) niet beter neerzetten als beter dan de Europeanen, ik denk ook niet dat ze dat waren.
User reviews
LibraryThing member thorold
What if Americans had invaded Europe in the sixteenth century instead of the other way round? We all know that tiny handfuls of Conquistadors managed to snag improbably large swathes of territory for Spain on the strength of a marginal technological advantage, a huge amount of luck, and a
Binet's alternative branch of history starts out with the Vikings penetrating much further south along the American coast than is usually accepted, with a shipload under the command of Erik the Red's daughter Freydis (because, why not?) getting as far as Cuba, leaving a trail of antibodies, horses, ironworking skills and the worship of Thor behind them. As a result, Columbus has a bit of a hard time in the Caribbean and never gets home, but his Taino hosts have time to profit from his geographical knowledge and reverse-engineer his ship and firearms.
Some forty years later, in 1531, a couple of shiploads of Americans under the leadership of exiled Inca emperor Atahualpa and his Taino mistress Higuénamota arrive in Lisbon at a moment when the local authorities have been rather distracted by a devastating earthquake. And before anyone has fully realised what is happening, they have hijacked Charles V's empire in a kind of mirror-image of the way Hernan Cortés took over Montezuma's.
The novel is a lively romp in which just about anyone who was anybody in the sixteenth century has at least a walk-on part, and there are plenty of more and less subtle jokes buried in the text. In fact, I half suspect Binet of having put the whole complex structure together just so that he can have the Mexican conquerors build a pyramid in the courtyard of the Louvre...
On a more serious level, as becomes clearer from the epilogue in which Cervantes and El Greco debate the relationship between humanist values and religious belief with Michel de Montaigne (again, because why not?), Binet is using the novel to make us think about what we really mean when we talk about "European civilisation," "the Christian tradition," and the like. The hybrid European/American empire he postulates for Atahualpa, in which Sun-worship is the state religion but Catholicism, Lutheranism, Judaism and Islam are all officially tolerated and the Inquisition has been abolished, is more liberal and humanistic in practice than any "traditional" European state of the the time, and it also manages to maintain European peace for an unprecedented length of time (until the Mexicans turn up and destabilise things again...).
An interesting and entertaining read, with some great characters, especially Higuénamota, who loves to shock people like Luther by appearing on formal occasions in her national costume (i.e. none). But I think it might have worked better if Binet had found a way to overcome the technical imbalance without requiring Americans to rely on knowledge they had got from visiting Europeans. Couldn't there have been a stray Chinese ship landing on the coast of Peru?
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consciousness that they had nothing to lose. How might it have worked out if that playing-field had been slightly more level, and what consequences might it have had for Europe?Binet's alternative branch of history starts out with the Vikings penetrating much further south along the American coast than is usually accepted, with a shipload under the command of Erik the Red's daughter Freydis (because, why not?) getting as far as Cuba, leaving a trail of antibodies, horses, ironworking skills and the worship of Thor behind them. As a result, Columbus has a bit of a hard time in the Caribbean and never gets home, but his Taino hosts have time to profit from his geographical knowledge and reverse-engineer his ship and firearms.
Some forty years later, in 1531, a couple of shiploads of Americans under the leadership of exiled Inca emperor Atahualpa and his Taino mistress Higuénamota arrive in Lisbon at a moment when the local authorities have been rather distracted by a devastating earthquake. And before anyone has fully realised what is happening, they have hijacked Charles V's empire in a kind of mirror-image of the way Hernan Cortés took over Montezuma's.
The novel is a lively romp in which just about anyone who was anybody in the sixteenth century has at least a walk-on part, and there are plenty of more and less subtle jokes buried in the text. In fact, I half suspect Binet of having put the whole complex structure together just so that he can have the Mexican conquerors build a pyramid in the courtyard of the Louvre...
On a more serious level, as becomes clearer from the epilogue in which Cervantes and El Greco debate the relationship between humanist values and religious belief with Michel de Montaigne (again, because why not?), Binet is using the novel to make us think about what we really mean when we talk about "European civilisation," "the Christian tradition," and the like. The hybrid European/American empire he postulates for Atahualpa, in which Sun-worship is the state religion but Catholicism, Lutheranism, Judaism and Islam are all officially tolerated and the Inquisition has been abolished, is more liberal and humanistic in practice than any "traditional" European state of the the time, and it also manages to maintain European peace for an unprecedented length of time (until the Mexicans turn up and destabilise things again...).
An interesting and entertaining read, with some great characters, especially Higuénamota, who loves to shock people like Luther by appearing on formal occasions in her national costume (i.e. none). But I think it might have worked better if Binet had found a way to overcome the technical imbalance without requiring Americans to rely on knowledge they had got from visiting Europeans. Couldn't there have been a stray Chinese ship landing on the coast of Peru?
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LibraryThing member doko
Clever, but I am sure I missed a good deal of the richness of the story due to my limited knowledge of both the period in which the story takes place and the actual lives of some of the real people who appear in the novel.
LibraryThing member waldhaus1
A fascinating retelling of world history with the Inca and later the Aztec coming to europe as conquerors or at least as equqls. Many historical figures and events are seen in a new light . I have to admire the author’s imagination. At times I wish he had clarified some events or relationships,
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but in the end it comes together well. Show Less
LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
Laurent Binet writes books that play around with history. In HHhH, which I mostly liked with some reservations, he fictionalized the story of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich during World War II. In this book, his latest offering, he is not retelling an actual historical event. Instead, he
As prelude to the actual story, Binet proposes an alternate scenario in which a Viking woman, Freydis migrated much further south into the New World, settling into South America and assimilating with the indigenous people there. Later, when Christopher Columbus arrives, he is captured, incarcerated, and never returns to Europe. All of this is a set up for the main body of the book, which concerns the conquest of Europe by the Incas.
The conquest begins when the Inca ruler Atahualpa, at war with his brother and having heard of the kingdoms across the sea, flees in a fleet of ships with assorted soldiers, princesses, parrots, and his pet jaguar. Ultimately the ships arrive in a Portugal recently ravaged by a massive earthquake, and suffering under the Inquisition of the Catholic Church, suppressing the Jews, the Moors, and other unbelievers. Atahualpa reads the newest bestseller by a guy named Machiavelli, and he's off--his deeds documented by the likes of Michaelangelo and Titian.
It's all great fun for a while, although of course serious points about colonization and empires are raised. But after a while, I found it grew tedious. As I said Binet really gets into the weeds with reference to all the rulers of minor Duchys etc. Unfortunately, the library pulled this one back from me when I still had about 50 pages left to read, but I wasn't interested enough to put another hold on it in order to finish. From what I could tell from the Amazon reviews, there were no great revelations towards the end.
3 stars
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has created an alternate history. Unlike many science fictional alternate histories I have read, there is a real emphasis on the history part here--he really gets down in the weeds with all the 16th/17 century rulers affected by his "alternate" account of history.As prelude to the actual story, Binet proposes an alternate scenario in which a Viking woman, Freydis migrated much further south into the New World, settling into South America and assimilating with the indigenous people there. Later, when Christopher Columbus arrives, he is captured, incarcerated, and never returns to Europe. All of this is a set up for the main body of the book, which concerns the conquest of Europe by the Incas.
The conquest begins when the Inca ruler Atahualpa, at war with his brother and having heard of the kingdoms across the sea, flees in a fleet of ships with assorted soldiers, princesses, parrots, and his pet jaguar. Ultimately the ships arrive in a Portugal recently ravaged by a massive earthquake, and suffering under the Inquisition of the Catholic Church, suppressing the Jews, the Moors, and other unbelievers. Atahualpa reads the newest bestseller by a guy named Machiavelli, and he's off--his deeds documented by the likes of Michaelangelo and Titian.
It's all great fun for a while, although of course serious points about colonization and empires are raised. But after a while, I found it grew tedious. As I said Binet really gets into the weeds with reference to all the rulers of minor Duchys etc. Unfortunately, the library pulled this one back from me when I still had about 50 pages left to read, but I wasn't interested enough to put another hold on it in order to finish. From what I could tell from the Amazon reviews, there were no great revelations towards the end.
3 stars
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LibraryThing member bookmuse56
Delightful, Imaginative, Clever
These are the three words that came to mind when I finished reading this entertaining revisionist historical fiction book by Laurent Binet, and adeptly translated by Sam Taylor.
Overall, this cleverly constructed counter-factual romp, set primarily in the sixteenth
Delightful in the history geek in me, enjoyed the combining the fictional characters and well-known historical figures to explore origin stories and the commonalities between empires and conquests.
Imaginative in the use of format and techniques to make the storytelling believable and the characters true to their nature for their time and culture.
Clever in that the story was thought-provoking for me as this revised past was relatable to the present and some of the same issues we are currently experiencing; the less fortunate were the ones that suffered during the upheavals due to the conquests, the role of religions being the dividing and too often used as a tool to manipulate the people to the wills of certain leaders.
While not a perfect book, I was certainly glad to read a book that included Inca and Aztec cultures which often do not have but a one sentence in history books and many never get to learn of the richness of these cultures.
I recommend this book to readers who like a historical, satirical, and parody slant to speculative stories that explore “what If …”.
These are the three words that came to mind when I finished reading this entertaining revisionist historical fiction book by Laurent Binet, and adeptly translated by Sam Taylor.
Overall, this cleverly constructed counter-factual romp, set primarily in the sixteenth
Show More
century, describes a world in which the Incas traveled across the Atlantic and dominated parts of Europe and encountered other empires, and/or budding empires.Delightful in the history geek in me, enjoyed the combining the fictional characters and well-known historical figures to explore origin stories and the commonalities between empires and conquests.
Imaginative in the use of format and techniques to make the storytelling believable and the characters true to their nature for their time and culture.
Clever in that the story was thought-provoking for me as this revised past was relatable to the present and some of the same issues we are currently experiencing; the less fortunate were the ones that suffered during the upheavals due to the conquests, the role of religions being the dividing and too often used as a tool to manipulate the people to the wills of certain leaders.
While not a perfect book, I was certainly glad to read a book that included Inca and Aztec cultures which often do not have but a one sentence in history books and many never get to learn of the richness of these cultures.
I recommend this book to readers who like a historical, satirical, and parody slant to speculative stories that explore “what If …”.
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LibraryThing member janerawoof
"What-if" novel: Vikings in Panama; outcome of Columbus sailing to New World; largest section of novel Incas coming to Europe after a civil war; fate of Cervantes. Interesting premises but the Inca section much too long and bloated, taking up half the novel or more. I skimmed that part, skipping
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the lists and series of letters. Very readable translation from the French. Show Less
LibraryThing member john.cooper
Again and again, when I read a highly praised mainstream novel that attempts a subject or technique that's more associated with a deprecated literary genre such as SF—in this case, an alternative or "counterfactual" world history—I find that it hasn't been done to the level that the fringe
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genre has led me to expect. In this case, the ideas are there, but the characters are only sketched, not fully drawn, and the plot is loose and careless. In addition, the authorial voice is inconsistent and irritating. There are obvious attempts to sound like a saga in the sections about the Norse or like scholars in the letters of Renaissance figures, but they're shaky and unconvincing. And in the more straightforward sections, the sentences and paragraphs are awful: short and simple to a fault, like a textbook written to an arbitrary grade-level standard. (This may be the translator's fault.) Reading this book was, in fact, as difficult as reading a mediocre high-school history textbook. That the events described are the opposite of what we know to have happened doesn't make it any easier. A very disappointing reading experience. Show Less
LibraryThing member JohnnyOstentatious
I returned this novel to the library after slogging through the first 100 pages. While the section with Christopher Columbus' diary entries was entertaining, I was otherwise lost.
LibraryThing member mkapij
A really fun story where each event in a very long series of events seems not unreasonable, and yet we end up with an entirely different version of history.
LibraryThing member Gwendydd
This is really more of a thought experiment than a novel. It asks the question: What would it take for the Incas to conquer Europe? The people of the Americas gain immunity to smallpox when Vikings explore all the way down the east coast and into [what is now] South America. When Christopher
It's an interesting thought experiment, and I love how the story is flipped on its head. However, there are a lot of major logical flaws that make it really hard to swallow. For instance, the Vikings leave behind a few horses, and from there, Americans have a thriving population of horses. I have every respect for the technological prowess of the Incas, but still find it hard to believe that they could get on a ship and sail it accurately across the Pacific Ocean with no prior sailing experience.
The book covers several hundred years, so there is no time for character development, and the narrative gets pretty tedious at times.
I have read Binet's other books and found them to be funny, insightful, and well-written. This one is a big disappointment. It's fascinating to think about what might have happened if the Incas had conquered Europe instead of the other way around, but this book doesn't live up to the promise.
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Columbus arrives, he is imprisoned and dies. One of two warring Incan factions take Columbus's ships back to Europe, and arrive in the aftermath of an earthquake in Lisbon in 1531. From there, through war, diplomacy, marriage, and trade, the Incas conquer Europe. It's an interesting thought experiment, and I love how the story is flipped on its head. However, there are a lot of major logical flaws that make it really hard to swallow. For instance, the Vikings leave behind a few horses, and from there, Americans have a thriving population of horses. I have every respect for the technological prowess of the Incas, but still find it hard to believe that they could get on a ship and sail it accurately across the Pacific Ocean with no prior sailing experience.
The book covers several hundred years, so there is no time for character development, and the narrative gets pretty tedious at times.
I have read Binet's other books and found them to be funny, insightful, and well-written. This one is a big disappointment. It's fascinating to think about what might have happened if the Incas had conquered Europe instead of the other way around, but this book doesn't live up to the promise.
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LibraryThing member Steve38
Well, that was lots of fun. A 'what if' of history retold. The Vikings went further than Newfoundland and reached the Caribbean, Columbus set sail but never returned to Europe with his discovery of the New World. In fact the 'New World' turned out to be Europe itself discovered by a small band of
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armed Incas. The conquistadors-in-reverse took on and conquered the continent. The emperor Atahualpa leading them. All the main characters of European history appear including Pedro Pizarro in a very different role, Charles V the Holy Roman Emperor, Queen Isabella, Henry VIII, Luther, Erasmus, Barbarossa, Michelangelo, Titian, Cervantes, El Greco and many others. Written in a very apposite, folkloric, simple style as well as being highly amusing it highlights some of the absurdities of European history of the time. Atahualpa himself is a very worthy hero. What if indeed. Show Less
LibraryThing member RickGeissal
SPOILERS -
So do not go any further if you do not want to know what's in the book.
****
****
Two-direction fantasy about what might have happened - what if Columbus had been caught & killed, the Old World never receiving news of his voyage; what if New World people had commandeered Columbus's ships &
So do not go any further if you do not want to know what's in the book.
****
****
Two-direction fantasy about what might have happened - what if Columbus had been caught & killed, the Old World never receiving news of his voyage; what if New World people had commandeered Columbus's ships &
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"found" the Old World? I read 40% of the book & found I just didn't care, so I quit reading. Show Less
LibraryThing member booklove2
I have been meaning to read Laurent Binet for a while now! I LOVED the idea, the concept behind this book. What would have happened if the events of certain historical visitors went slightly differently? Everything as a butterfly effect. Unfortunately, I am not a history buff so this sort of
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writing style gets very dense as a minefield of things I don't know. So it doesn't hit as well as it probably could have, if I knew my world history better. My fault! I was really hoping I would enjoy this more. There are probably a ton of fun historical easter eggs here, if you can spot them. History buffs can get more mileage out of this, I suppose. This very much reminded me of the book 'Sudden Death' by Alvaro Enrique. Show Less
LibraryThing member P1g5purt
Very clever.
Awards
Sidewise Award (Winner — 2021)
BookTube Prize (Octofinalist — 2022)
Language
Original language
French
Original publication date
2019 (1e édition originale française)
2020 (Nederlands)
2021 (English translation)
Physical description
8.46 inches
ISBN
178730230X / 9781787302303