THE GOLD EATERS

Based closely on real events, The Gold Eaters draws on Ronald Wright's expert knowledge of time and place as well as his
considerable imaginative and narrative gifts to bring to vivid life an unforgettable epoch.

It is 1526. A young Peruvian seaman is seized from an Inca trading vessel in the Pacific Ocean by a ship belonging to Francisco Pizarro, who is seeking the "golden land" of Peru—still only a tantalizing rumour to the Spaniards. Baptised Felipe, the young captive is taught to be an interpreter, and taken to Spain in Pizarro's bid to win support from the king and queen. Intrigued by the strange world of the Europeans, and resentful of the Inca emperors who control much of South America, Felipe returns to his homeland in 1532 with Pizarro's army of conquistadors. There he plays the key role of go-between in the overthrow of Atahuallpa, the new Inca emperor who has just seized power in a bloody dynastic war set off by a plague of smallpox. At first the interpreter collaborates with the invaders in one of history's great cultural collisions. But as both Spaniards and Incas begin to fight not only one another but also among themselves, Felipe becomes increasingly troubled by the destruction and exploitation he sees all around: abandoned fields, broken roads, murder, rape, and slavery. When Felipe learns that his cousin Tika (for whom he has yearned since adolescence) is still alive, and that his widowed mother has taken up with a Spanish deserter and fled to the highlands, he defects from his European masters and begins a long search for what is left of his family—and of his own identity. These quests take him into the high Andes, where a kingdom of unconquered Incas is still resisting the invasion.