The Moor's Account

by Laila Lalami

This book is on the Mann Booker longlist this year.  The author, born in Morocco, now lives in the U.S.

The story takes place in the 1500's.  The story is told by a Muslim man Mustafa ibn Muhhammad ibn Abdussalam al-Zamri, of the city of Azemmur in Morocco.  Mustafa's father is a successful Notary and hopes his son will follow in the same career but Mustafa does not want a boring clerical career.  He routinely skips school to spend time in the markets and eventually gets a job as a trader.  He is quite successful at this.  Then the Portugese come and insist that taxes be paid to them.  The town refuses and the city is held seige by the Portugese.  Mustafa's father becomes despondent/ill and eventually dies.  Mustafa is left to support his mother, sister and twin brother's.  But with the seige he loses his job.  Desperate to provide money for his family he sells himself into slavery.

He finds himself chained with other slaves and shipped to Spain.  He is bought as a household slave and is roughly treated by his master.  This master eventually sells him to a man who plans to sail to the new world to make his fortune.  Mustafa has been renamed Esteban by his owners.  He is very sad for his loss of freedom and dreams about regaining his freedom and returning to his home some day.

The expedition land in "La Florida".  The leader, Narveaz, decides to land some of the travellers on the shore and have the ships meet them further on at a large port they believe exists.  This is the first of many bad decisions which ultimately result in the deaths of all but four of the expedition people.
The people do not find any gold, they find a few trinkets with turquoise and gold.  They encounter some small indian setttlements which they loot for food and other tools.  They live lives of hardship, at times being treated like slaves of the indians in return for meagre rations, some resort to cannibalism.

Mustafa and his fellow survivors eventually learn the local languages and combine some of their knowledge of medical treatment and some of the things that they have learned from the natives into a travelling healing business.  They are fed by their guests and receive lots of guests.  Some of them take native wives.  They end up having a group of over a thousand natives who travel with them.  Eventually Mustafa reconciles himself to life in North America.  But then one day they come upon a Spaniard who is seeking riches and slaves.   The Spaniard takes them back to Mexico where they are welcomed back.  The Spaniards want them to tell their story so that they, the Spaniards can conquer the lands and the people.  Mustafa's group are loathe to see the natives they have come to love and who trust them enslaved so they don't cooperate. 

Mustafa's owner had promised to grant him his freedom but then he keeps stalling.  He is being offered money to sell Mustafa as a guide and interpreter.  Mustafa is shattered that he will likely never get his freedom.  He and his pregnant wife set off on an exploratory mission.  He eventually convinces a native group to send back word that he has been murdered by the natives.  This is the only way he will gain his freedom, he and his wife will return to her people.

He decides to write his own account of his travels as he feels the Spaniards version is not really the truth but is meant to make them appear in the best possible light, and not admit to the bad things they did.

I found the book very interesting and engaging.  The author told a great adventure story, based on a real expedition, she did a wonderful job of portraying life at that time and the trials the group would have faced.