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Historical Novels of Latin AmericaMexico, the Caribbean, Central and South AmericaLatin America from Mexico south experienced a tumultuous and vibrant history, from the Pre-Columbian and Spanish Conquest periods when the Inca, Maya and Aztec peoples ruled large territories until their defeat by the Spanish Conquistators, through the colonial rule and revolutions of the seventeenth through twentieth centuries. Latin American authors have pioneered the new genre of "magical realism," celebrating their richly imaginative culture. Novels are listed alphabetically by author within the following categories: Pre-Columbian Latin America and the Spanish Conquest Pre-Columbian Latin America and the Spanish ConquestIsabel Allende, Inés of My Soul, about the Spanish conquistadora who, with her lover, built the city of Santiago, Chile Ron Braithwaite, Skull Rack, a violent story of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, told in the form of a dialogue between an official of the Inquisition and his prisoner, a former inquisitor, whom he forces to retell the story of the conquest Ron Braithwaite, Hummingbird God, about the Spanish conquest of Mexico, told in the form of a dialogue between an official of the Inquisition and his prisoner, a former inquisitor, whom he forces to retell the story of the conquest; sequel to Skull Rack A.B. Daniel, The Puma's Shadow, about an Inca woman during the time of the Spanish conquistadors; #1 in the Incas series A.B. Daniel, The Gold of Cuzco, about an Inca woman during the time of the Spanish conquistadors; #2 in the Incas series A.B. Daniel, The Light of Machu Picchu, about an Inca woman during the time of the Spanish conquistadors; #3 in the Incas series Laura Esquivel, Malinche, about the woman who acted as interpreter for Hernan Cortes and fell in love with him, unaware that his conquest would enslave rather than free her people Colin Falconer, Feathered Serpent: A Novel of the Mexican Conquest, about the sixteenth century Spanish Conquest of Mexico Gary Jennings, Aztec, about the rise of an Aztec during the height of the Aztec civilization; #1 in the Aztec series Gary Jennings, Aztec Autumn, about Aztec resistance to the Spanish conquistadors; #2 in the Aztec series Gary Jennings, Aztec Blood, about a boy of mixed Aztec-Spanish blood after the fall of the Aztec empire; #3 in the Aztec series Gary Jennings, Aztec Rage, about an Aztec revolt during the time of Napleon; #4 in the Aztec series James A. Michener, Mexico, about a contemporary American journalist who travels to Mexico and is swept up in the story of his Mexican ancestors from pre-Columbian times through the twentieth century Laszlo Passuth, Tlaloc Weeps for Mexico, about La Malinche, Cortes' mistress and interpreter Daniel Peters, The Luck of Huemac, about an Aztec sorcerer in the years leading up to the coming of Cortes and the conquistadors Daniel Peters, Tikal: A Novel About the Maya, about life in the ancient Mayan capital Daniel Peters, The Incas, about the Incan Empire during the years before the coming of Pizarro and the conquistadors Samuel Shellabarger, Captain of Castile, about a young Spanish conquistador who accompanies the army of Cortez to Mexico Frances Sherwood, Night of Sorrows, about an Aztec princess who becomes the slave of Hernan Cortes Norman Spinrad, Mexica, about the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs David Stacton, A Signal Victory, a literary novel about the Spanish conquest of the Mayans; published in 1960.
Aztec Mystery NovelsSimon Levack, Demon of the Air, the slave of an Aztec government minister must solve the mystery surrounding a botched sacrifice; #1 in the Aztec mystery series Simon Levack, Shadow of the Lords, the slave of an Aztec government minister stumbles across a dead man and must find out who murdered him; # in the Aztec mystery series Simon Levack, City of Spies, the slave of an Aztec government minister must solve a mystery; #3 in the Aztec mystery series Simon Levack, Tribute of Death, the slave of an Aztec government minister must solve a mystery; #4 in the Aztec mystery series
17th-20th Century Latin AmericaNataniel Aguirre, Juan de la Rosa: Memoirs of the Last Soldier of the Independence Movement, about the Bolivian struggle for independence in the early nineteenth century Claribel Alegria and Darwin Flakoll, Ashes of Izalco, a love story set during the time of the 1932 massacre of 30,000 Indians and peasants in Izalco, El Salvador Isabel Allende, House of the Spirits, about a South American family from the beginning of the twentieth century onward Isabel Allende, Portrait in Sepia, about a Chilean woman's search to understand her mysterious nightmare of San Francisco's Chinatown Paul Anderson, Hunger’s Brides, set in seventeenth century Mexico Augusto Roa Bastos, I, the Supreme, about José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, who was dictator of Paraguay from 1814 to 1840 Sandra Benitez, Bitter Grounds, about life on a coffee plantation in El Salvador from 1932-1977 Rosario Castellanos, Book of Lamentations, about a fictional rebellion in Mexico in 1930 that resembles historical rebellions in 1712 and 1868 Alica Gaspar de Alba, Sor Juana's Second Dream, about a seventeenth century Mexican nun who wrote controversial plays and poetry Anne Enright, The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch, about the Irish-born mistress of Paraguay's President Francisco Solano Lopez Amy Ephron, White Rose: Una Rosa Blanca, about a young Cuban woman and an American newspaper reporter during the Cuban rebellion of the 1890s Rosario Ferré, Flight of the Swan, about ballerina Anna Pavlova's 1917 tour of Latin America Carlos Fuentes, The Old Gringo, about the disappearance of Ambrose Bierce during the early twentieth century Mexican Civil War Carlos Fuentes, Years With Laura Diaz, about a Mexican woman who becomes an artist Gerald Green, The Sword and the Sun: A Story of the Spanish Civil Wars in Peru, about the effects of the war in Peru during the 1930s; published in 1953 Francisco Goldman, The Divine Husband, about a woman of Irish and Mayan blood involved with four different men in nineteenth century Latin America Tom Lea, The Brave Bulls, about Mexican bullfighting Mario Vargas Llosa, The War of the End of the World, based on the life of a nineteenth century Brazilian prophet Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude, a family saga set in Latin America Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera, a love story set on the Caribbean coast of South America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The General in His Labyrinth, a melancholy novel about the last years of Simón Bolivár, who led the struggle for South American independence from Spain in the early nineteenth century Eloy Martinez, Santa Evita, a tragi-comic novel about the corpse of Evita Perón set in 1955 Argentina C.M. Mayo, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, about Mexico in the 1860s when it was ruled by the Austrian Archduke Maximilian; forthcoming in 2009 Ana Gloria Moya, Heaven of Drums, about love and discrimination during the early nineteenth century Argentine revolution Barbara Mujica, Frida, about the early twentieth century Mexican artist Frida Kahlo Frances de Pontes Peebles, The Seamstress (2008), about two sisters who are seamstresses in 1930s Brazil, one of whom is abducted by rebels, the other of whom marries a wealthy, politically powerful doctor Ernesto Sabato, On Heroes and Tombs, a surrealistic novel set during the Argentine Civil War of the 1840s, in 1955 Buenos Aires, and in an alternative world Graham Shelby, Demand the World, about the Irish-born mistress of Paraguay's President Francisco Solano Lopez Thorvald Steen, Don Carlos, a literary novel about an Italian laborer and his encounter with Charles Darwin in Buenos Aires in the fall of 1833 Lily Tuck, The News From Paraguay, about the Irish-born mistress of Paraguay's President Francisco Solano Lopez; 2004 National Book Award winner Luis Alberto Urrea, The Hummingbird’s Daughter, about St. Teresa of Cabora, an illegitimate peasant girl who becomes a healer after a near-death experience in late nineteenth century Mexico Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, about the lives of those who died in the 1714 collapse of a bridge in Peru Norman Zollinger, Chapultepec, about an American woman and a soldier of the French Foreign Legion during the time of Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota in Mexico
The CaribbeanPeter Bourne, Drums of Destiny, about Henri Christophe, who rose from slavery to become king of Haiti after the Haitian Revolution; Peter Bourne is a pen name of Graham Montague Jeffries; published in the 1940s Edwidge Danticat, The Farming of Bones, about the systematic murder of Haitians in the Dominican Republic during the 1930s Cristina García, Monkey Hunting, about a Chinese man who immigrates to Cuba in in 1857 and becomes a slave on a sugarcane plantation
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