Why read The Memoirs of Christopher Columbus?

Book cover of The Memoirs of Christopher Columbus

Book description

In this novel, Christopher Columbus tells the story of his life and recalls the first fateful love of his youth, thoughts on his Portuguese wife, his Spanish mistress, and Queen Isabella, and his discovery of the New World

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Historical fiction

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Memoirs of Christopher Columbus as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Christopher Harris

Author

A surreal picaresque, apparently narrated by the ghost of Columbus, who knows exactly how posterity has treated him and sets out to tell the ‘true’ story of his life and adventures. Written in a lively, vernacular style, full of jokes, arguments, boasts, anachronisms, score-settling, and shifts of tone and genre, it is a thoroughly enjoyable read.

This book tests the limits of the memoir, and shows that historical novels can be great fun, and don’t always have to respect their sources.

From Christopher's list on The best novels that get you right inside the minds of historical people.