Aztec

by Colin Falconer

First published 1996

Amazon

4.0(986)

Mexico, 1519. Hernán Cortés begins an unauthorised expedition into the interior and increasingly depends on Malinali, the multilingual woman known to the Spaniards as Doña Marina. Her ability to interpret languages and political motives makes negotiation possible with communities whose relationship with the Aztec Empire has been shaped by tribute, warfare and resentment.

As the expedition advances towards Tenochtitlan and the court of Moctezuma, Malinali becomes indispensable to both diplomacy and conquest. Alliance, attraction and personal survival are entangled with the ambitions of the Spanish commander and with Indigenous rivalries the newcomers only partly understand. The novel presents the fall of the Aztec imperial order through the intertwined perspectives of Cortés and Malinche, showing how translation itself becomes an instrument of power in a campaign that transforms the political world around them.