Patria

An extraordinary adventure into South America's epic history<BR><BR>'Absolutely wonderful' DOMINIC SANDBROOK<BR>'A luscious, erudite romp ... a tour de force of literary mezcla' ALICE ALBINIA<BR>'A magnificent contribution to the Latin American canon' MARIE ARANA<BR><BR>In this sweeping exploration of the continent's forgotten past, Laurence Blair takes as his waymarks nine countries that can't be found on a map: vanished realms, half-imagined utopias and dismembered homelands. Looking beyond modern borders, he travels to each in turn - on foot and horseback, by rail and river - to weave an epic of survival, resistance and revolution.<BR><BR>Blair's journey spans five centuries and thousands of miles, ranging from ancient Amazonian civilisations and a rebel Inca dynasty in the Peruvian jungle - via a Brazilian Wakanda that defied slavery, Bolivia's landlocked navy and the Patagonian power that defeated the Spanish Empire - to the African freedom fighters who marched over the Andes from Argentina, and the Napoleon of the New World who led Paraguay to its ruin.<BR><BR>This is the story of South America as is rarely told: at the epicentre of global history and the forging of the modern world.<BR><BR>*Winner of the Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Award*<BR><BR>'An unputdownable delight' JON LEE ANDERSON