The Moor's Account

By: Laila Lalami

Narrated by: Neil Shah

A New York Times Notable Book.

In this stunning work of historical fiction, Laila Lalami brings us the imagined memoirs of the first black explorer of America--a Moroccan slave whose testimony was left out of the official record. In 1527 the conquistador Pnfilo de Narvez sailed from the port of Sanlcar de Barrameda with a crew of 600 men and nearly a hundred horses. His goal was to claim what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States for the Spanish crown and, in the process, become as wealthy and famous as Hernn Corts. But from the moment the Narvez expedition landed in Florida, it faced peril--navigational errors, disease, starvation, as well as resistance from indigenous tribes. Within a year there were only four survivors: the expedition's treasurer, lvar Nez Cabeza de Vaca; a Spanish nobleman named Alonso del Castillo Maldonado; a young explorer named Andrs Dorantes de Carranza; and Dorantes' Moroccan slave, Mustafa al-Zamori, whom the three Spaniards called Estebanico. These four survivors would go on to make a journey across America that would transform them from proud conquistadores to humble servants, from fearful outcasts to faith healers.

The Moor's Account brilliantly captures Estebanico's voice and vision, giving us an alternate narrative for this famed expedition. As the dramatic chronicle unfolds, we come to understand that, contrary to popular belief, black men played a significant part in New World exploration, and Native American men and women were not merely silent witnesses to it.

In Laila Lalami's deft hands, Estebanico's memoir illuminates the ways in which stories can transmigrate into history, even as storytelling can offer a chance for redemption and survival.

©2014 Laila Lalami (P)2014 Audible Inc.

I loved this story

I love historical fiction done well. I know much of this is fiction from the author’s imagination since Mustafa did not actually leave a written account. I assume she combined parts of the known account with her imagination of Mustafa’s account. I think she did a very believable job.

superb reader, excellent story

Any additional comments?

this was a well researched, intimate, and human account of a historic moment. i loved every bit of it.

The Rest of the Story

Any additional comments?

The premise of this alone makes it stand out: a North African man, who’s had to sell himself into slavery to pay his family’s debts, arrives in 16th Century “New Spain” to serve as part of a Conquistador’s mission of conquest. On top of that, though, Lalami adds a thoughtful layer of what it means to tell history, and we’re left with an original and provocative story.

The premise here reminds me of Toni Morrison’s A Mercy. (If it is not as accomplished as that novel, don’t worry; very few things are.) Both of those books imagine the New World at a moment before it coalesced into a place capable of the sort of slavery we know. Each explores (and largely rejects) the possibility of friendship and partnership between people of different races, but each does so at a moment in American history before there is an America.

The best parts of this one come as the explorers get their first glimpses of a southern North America that, if familiar to us, is bewilderingly new to them. There may be a sameness to our experience of their discoveries – it does get difficult to distinguish one new tribe or one new river from another – but the group’s gradual diminishment changes their experience in ways that sustain the narrative. They lose their arrogance, and the nature of their encounter takes on an ever-changing tone.

Early on, the narrator notes of the would-be conquerors, “They gave speeches not to voice the truth but to create it.” They name everything they see as if they are in a world without history.

Later, once their hardships compel them to acknowledge the history and power of the land around them, they become more descriptive. The narrator even subtly mocks them for switching to a shorthand of “first river” or “second river” where once they thought of themselves as drawing a new map.

Lalami adds to that drama the sense that the very business of telling the group’s story follows a similar pattern. The arrogant tell their story and think of it as history in full. And, at least as I have learned the history, the Spanish story feels like the full and familiar one.

The central joy of this book is the realization that, without “the Moor’s account,” we have only a partial history of that awful and awesome time. It takes a black man, enslaved to the Spanish, to help us see those Native Americans in a new light. If the picaresque of this occasionally drags (but only occasionally) that implicit narrative correction to our history makes it all come together as a compelling and entertaining story.

Story interesting, performance over-wrought

Performing an audio-book can be an actor's dream: where else can s/he demonstrate the breadth and capacity of dramatic talent needed to portray 20 characters simultaneously? However, I found Neil Shah's performance to be rather over the top, sometimes ridiculous, and often distracting. I appreciate the seriousness with which he endeavored to give each and every character a different vocal pitch, speed of talking, and an accent particular to their nationality and social status, but as an overall effect it took away from the book.

The plot is of the Adventure genre presented in a Historical Fiction landscape: imaginative perspectives of actual historical events, but without lingering too long on any one location or thought process, such that things move forward at a steady clip. I appreciate that Lalami refrained from delving too far into gore and details of suffering -- only two rape scenes, and the physical battles, bouts of disease, and other hardships were rendered tactfully, given how grim everyday life was in the 16th century and the tendency of many historical fictionalists to wallow in those details.

I think it is probably helpful if the listener understands some Spanish. My Spanish is extremely limited, and occasionally I felt like I may have missed something when the Spanish characters spoke to each other using their native language, particularly towards the beginning of the novel. This might also help the listener keep track of the many characters' names.

I chose this book because it was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Although it is an interesting tale, and probably took a lot of research to produce, it didn't move me the in the manner I would expect from a Pulitzer finalist.

The Moor's Account

This is a great tale. The reader, Neil Shah did a great job. Apparently not everyone liked the voices he chose for different characters, but his measured pace echoed the determination and courage of his narrator, Mustapha. Very rewarding story.

Well written story

Definitely worth the plunge if you’re looking for a insightful story. Not fast paced but there was no point at which I grudgingly listened. I really liked the narration too.

Very long descriptive story. Tiresome.

Struggled to finish it. I kept waiting to find out what happens to the main character.

loved reading the history from another perspective

A really engaging and complex story. I loved every word. and will probably read again!

Compelling story

Unfortunately a little soap operaish for my tastes. One dimensional characters and predictable. Too bad.

Terrific read evoking 16th century New World life

Any additional comments?

Anyone who grew up in Texas, as I did, and attended a public Junior High School remembers the requisite Texas History course. The most fascinating events to come out of that class were the Alamo, of course, and the story of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. As the treasurer and royal representative of the ill-fated Spanish exploratory expedition led by Panfilo de Narvaez, he was one of only four known surviviors. The others included two Spanish officers and noblemen, one of whom was Andreas Dorantes, who owned as a slave, the fourth survivor, a Moor named Mustafa al-Zamori, whom his master renamed Esteban. These four eventually became the first Europeans, and, of course, first African, to wander across the future states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Later, being found by a group of Spanish slave traders in present day Sonora, Mexico, they ended their eight year rambling trek in the capital of New Spain, present day Mexico City.

This outstanding work of historical fiction shows the duplicitous nature of these Spanish would-be conquistadors as seen in their avowed goal to bring Florida under the control of the King of Spain and bringing Christianity to the natives which contrasted with their more obvious self-serving goals of gold, personal wealth, and fame. The Narvaez expedition of 300 men, which landed in Florida near Tampa Bay in April of 1528, completely underestimated both the physical endurance required to navigate through that land as well as the ability of the native tribes to defend themselves. Viewed through the eyes of Esteban, with flashbacks to his days growing up and working as a merchant in Morocco, Neil Shah delivers a 5-star narration, giving the main Spanish characters distinctive voices along with Esteban’s haunting voice and those of several native characters. The story follows Esteban through the miseries of how he became a slave in Spain, traveling to the New World, suffering through the decisions of Narvaez and others that doomed the expedition, and then the struggles thereafter. All the while “The Moor’s” desire to regain his freedom is paramount in his thoughts and deeds.

My only criticism of the story line was there were infrequent descriptions of the lands themselves once having left Florida, so one had difficulty determining exactly where they were geographically, since movement through time was based on moving from tribe to tribe ever westwards. At some point they moved across plains to mountains and eventually to Culican on the Pacific Coast without any geographical references. That said, the fascinating depiction via Esteban of the characters, events, and trials of these four men who end up lost in a 16th century landscape of the present U.S. southwest is an engrossing and entertaining read. The nature of humanity in all its forms of good, evil and everything in between are there.