In his richly evocative, skillfully paced new novel, which begins in 1526 and spans the first two decades of Spain's conquest of the Inca Empire (70 years before Shakespeare wrote Richard III) Ronald Wright – the Canadian historian whose 10 books include two well-received novels ( A Scientific Romance, Henderson's Spear) – often focuses on the Inca's perplexity over the Spanish conquistadors' lust, 'sexual in its intensity,' for gold, a mineral so abundant the Inca lined their roofs with it. Visions of civilizational oneness sealed with pox-thwarting fistbumps dissipated, however, when it became apparent that what the Mashco-Piro actually wanted was metal cooking implements, which they grabbed from a nearby tourist resort before retreating back into the jungle.Ī saucepan might seem like a less romantic thing to wager your kingdom for than a horse, but the upshot of Shakespeare's famous line is the same: it's difficult to fathom the desperation of someone who lacks a thing you happen to have a lot of.

Based closely on real historical events, The Gold Eaters draws on Ronald Wright's imaginative skill as a novelist and his deep knowledge of South America to bring alive an epic struggle that laid the foundations of the modern world.International headlines recently reported that one of Earth's last uncontacted tribes, Peru's Mashco-Piro, appeared to be attempting to communicate with the world outside their Amazon home. Only then can he be reunited with the love of his life and begin the search for his shattered family, journeying through a land and a time vividly depicted here. To survive, he must not only learn political gamesmanship but also discover who he truly is, and in what country and culture he belongs. Forced to become Francisco Pizarro's translator, he finds himself caught up in one of history's great clashes of civilzations, the Spanish invasion of the Incan Empire of the 1530s. Kidnapped at sea by conquistadors seeking the golden land of Peru, a young Inca boy named Waman is the everyman thrown into extraordinary circumstances. The Gold Eaters is truly the gold standard to which all fiction - historical and otherwise - should aspire.' - Buzzfeed A sweeping, epic historical novel of exploration and invasion, of conquest and resistance, and of an enduring love that must overcome the destruction of one empire by another.

The gold eaters by ronald wright