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. 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.
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