Description
The purpose of historical novels about famous explorers is to weave reality and fiction together. The relationship between Francisco Serrão and Ferdinand Magellan and the letters to his cousin from the Spiceries (the Molucca Sea islands of Ternate and Tidore in modern Indonesia)), have been overlooked – as have Serrão and his life and times. In the far-ranging story of The Spice Man are woven the Papal Legate, female soldier/sailors, the mysterious Bachelor of Cananeia and many others who may have interacted with historically documented contemporaries such as Cristoforo Colombo, Amerigo Vespucci, the astronomer Abraham Zacuto, the geographer Duarte Pacheco Pereira and the traveller Ludovico di Varthema. Some are fictional; many are not. Set in a narrative that encompasses an understanding of the oceans, of offshore navigation and of Early Modern politics, the story brings to life not only a Portuguese explorer but the overall winners and losers in this Age of Portuguese exploration. It is a lesser-known epic tale that the Spanish conquest of the New World has all too often overshadowed.
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