An extraordinary adventure into South America's epic history 'Absolutely wonderful' DOMINIC
SANDBROOK 'A luscious erudite romp ... a tour de force of literary mezcla' ALICE ALBINIA 'An
unputdownable delight' JON LEE ANDERSON 'A magnificent contribution to the Latin American
canon' MARIE ARANA *Winner of the Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Award* 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.
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. This is the story of South America as
is rarely told: at the epicentre of global history and the forging of the modern world.
