Product Overview
From the bestselling author of Like Water for Chocolate, an extraordinary retelling of the passionate and tragic love affair during the conquest of the Aztecs between the conquistador Corts and his interpreter, Malinalli. A brilliant and multilingual woman, Malinalli has been reviled throughout Mexican history for the betrayal of her people--but her role was actually much more complex. When a young Malinalli's tribe was conquered and enslaved by the Aztec warriors, her grandmother imparted to her that their founding forefather god, Quetzalcoatl, had abandoned them--but he was destined to return with the rising sun and save her tribe from captivity. When the Spanish conquistador Hernn Corts first arrives, she--like many--believes he is the reincarnated forefather god of her tribe, here to free them. With her talent for linguistics, Malinalli became an indespensable guide and translator for Corts. In the hopes of freeing her people--and wanting to please this supposed god--she welcomes Corts and assumes her new role as an interpreter for the Spanish. Throughout their travels and various conquests, Corts and Malinalli gradually fall passionately in love. But it's not long before Malinalli realizes that Corts's thirst for conquest is all too human, and that he is willing to destroy anyone, even his own men, and even their own love.
