Malinche

A Novel

De: Laura Esquivel

Narrado por: Maria Conchita Alonso

From the bestselling author of Like Water for Chocolate, an extraordinary retelling of the passionate and tragic love affair during the conquest of the Aztecs between the conquistador Cortés and his interpreter, Malinalli.

A brilliant and multilingual woman, Malinalli has been reviled throughout Mexican history for the betrayal of her people—but her role was actually much more complex.

When a young Malinalli's tribe was conquered and enslaved by the Aztec warriors, her grandmother imparted to her that their founding forefather god, Quetzalcoatl, had abandoned them—but he was destined to return with the rising sun and save her tribe from captivity. When the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés first arrives, she—like many—believes he is the reincarnated forefather god of her tribe, here to free them.

With her talent for linguistics, Malinalli became an indespensable guide and translator for Cortés. In the hopes of freeing her people—and wanting to please this supposed god—she welcomes Cortés and assumes her new role as an interpreter for the Spanish. Throughout their travels and various conquests, Cortés and Malinalli gradually fall passionately in love. But it's not long before Malinalli realizes that Cortés's thirst for conquest is all too human, and that he is willing to destroy anyone, even his own men, and even their own love.©2006 Laura Esquivel; (P)2006 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Exquisite

The story is engrossing. The weaving of history with the inner lives, philosophies, and cosmologies of the characters is masterful. So much rich detail! Definitely bears repeat listening.

Transporting

Maria Conchita Alonso is the perfect choice for the voice of Malinche.
The story has a beautiful pace to it. A halting cadence that makes you lean in to it.

Very poetic

I love how the main character Malanani speaks so poetically describing her gods, nature, and culture. I love this author and she one of my favorites. If you read like water for chocolate, you will not be disappointed in this book.

Poetic and profound

It’s the second book I read by Laura Esquivel, this one has an intensity to it, it’s deep and every sentence seems to have several layers of meaning. Rich, touching, and poetic. A novel to savour.

Interesting but Something Lost in Translation

Esquicel delivers a powerful and human portrait of a highly mythologized figure. She also delivers some truly interesting insights into the motivation of such a character. That said there were times when the style of the story fell flat. Also some of the dialogue between the characters felt...very stilted. Perhaps something was lost in the translation

Beautiful Book

Beautiful story about the other side of history and the hardships that Native Americans went through.

What a beautiful story!

This book is one I will read over and over again. I ended the book with chills. I am inspired by this telling of Malinalli’s story.

Not my cup of tea

This book confused me. The timeline was messy and difficult for me to follow. The writing (I read a translation) seemed kind of childish or YA like at times, which I like, but the plot and subject felt adult. So I was confused about the genre the whole time. Which usually I don’t get too bogged down with but here I was confused.

It dealt with heavy subjects such as abuse and rape but it didn’t really seem to deal with them—partly because of the jump in timeline.

The writing felt forcefully poetic sometime and unnaturally so, but again maybe something was lost in translation.

I don’t know a ton about Malinche but I know she’s controversial and I suspect some would take issue with how she or Cortez are presented.

Not my favorite.