The Moor's Account

Laila Lalami

Blood, rape and suffering followed the Spaniards into the New World. See their doomed search for gold through the eyes of a Muslim slave. What makes his story so poignant is the fact that he blames himself for his own fate, unlike the Catholics who trust to God's absolution. A sobering account of man's inhumanity to man... but such a great read.

Extract

How strange I must have seemed to them: not a conqueror, but the slave of a conqueror, who had brought them the small comfort of a little food. Perhaps this led them to think of me as a good man. But these prisoners did not know, and I could not explain to them, that I had once traded in slaves. I had sent three men into a life of bondage, without pausing to consider my role in this evil. Now that I had become a slave myself, it shamed me that, even without meaning to, I still caused the suffering of others.

Parallels