Summary: In 1527, Panfilo de Narvaez sailed from Spain with a crew of 500, intending to claim for the Spanish crown what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States. But the expedition met with storms, disease, starvation, hostile natives, and within a year there were only four survivors, including the young explorer Andres Dorantes and his slave, Estebanico. After six years of enslavement by Native Americans, the four men escaped and wandered through what is now Florida, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Lalami captures Estebanico's voice and vision, giving an alternate narrative for the famed expedition. Black men played a significant part in New World exploration, and Native Americans were not merely silent witnesses to it. Laila Lalami was born and raised in Morocco. She is the author of "Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits" and "Secret Son," the 2010 Seattle Reads title. Lalami's writing has appeared in Newsweek, The Nation, The Guardian, The New York Times, and in numerous anthologies. Her work has been translated into 10 languages. She is the recipient of a British Council Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, and is currently an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California at Riverside.
