His entry begins:
You Dreamed of Empires, by Álvaro Enrigue. This is already my second read. My hands-down favorite book of 2024. It reinvents the story of Hernán Cortés’ first week in Tenochtitlan and his meeting with the Aztec emperor Moctezuma – probably one of the most fateful encounters in world history, as the future of the entire New World hung on its outcome. Yet Enrigue treats it with irreverence, irony, broad (almost slapstick) humor and compassion for all its protagonists. For me, You Dreamed of Empires is the ideal model of the historical novel, adhering to...[read on]About Sing to Me, from the publisher:
After the fall of Troy, an eleven-year-old boy sets off for the razed city when his father and sister vanish into the war zone; this "gorgeously drawn" novel offers an intimate vision of the most storied war in history, as seen through the eyes of a child. (Laird Hunt)Writers Read: Jesse Browner (January 2012).
His family farm and the surrounding community now emptied by war, young Hani embarks on an epic quest – assisted by a brooding yet brilliant donkey – to findhis lost sister in the ruins of Troy. Some war stories transcend time and circumstance, and so it is with the resourceful and heartbroken Hani, who must employ every bit of intelligence, every scrap of ingenuity, and ultimately every ounce of his spirit and humor to withstand the forces of civilization’s collapse.
Hani is no ordinary boy, however, and a character unlike any you’ve ever met. His interior world is one of startling depth and complexity. His insights into life, lives, and history are breathtakingly fresh. And his hope for survival—not a given, and in fact, less than likely—will propel you to the startling conclusion of this brief, elegiac, and singular work.
Writers Read: Jesse Browner.
--Marshal Zeringue
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