The Conquest [Hardcover]

Yxta Maya Murray (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

A perfect combination of history, passion, imagination and scholarship, Yxta Maya Murray's The Conquest pulses with the intangible essence that separates the books we love from the few that forever imprint themselves in our minds.

A restorer of rare books and manuscripts, Sara Gonzales lives in a solitary world filled with dusty broken books. A born reader, Sara is doing with her life just what she set out to do, even at the expense of true love.

When Sara is assigned to restore a banned and scandal-filled sixteenth century book called The Conquest, she does not yet know that the story will consume her, intellectually and emotionally, causing her to reevaluate her own sense of history as well as to question the decisions that have brought her to where she now finds herself.

Reputed to have been written by a notorious Spanish monk, The Conquest recounts the fantastic sexual adventures of an Aztec princess enslaved by Cortés after his conquest of what is now modern-day Mexico. Sent to Europe so that she may perform before the aristocracy, the princess soon becomes all the rage at court, an artist's muse, and a mortal danger to those who destroyed her world. Enthralled by the tale, Sara suspects that no monk wrote it, and she plunges into the mystery of the book's origin.

As Sara swims through the archives of the famed Getty Museum, the book captures more than just her curiosity. It becomes a cultural allegory of her own existence. In her own life, Sara has not resolved the conflicts of her broken family. While her father refuses to remember the past, she cannot forget her mother's untimely death. Sara's painful history that threatens her romance with the man she's always loved. It is The Conquest that leads Sara to an understanding of what she values most.

Filled with swashbuckling adventure and scholarly mystery, as well as a deep sense of our connection to history and its fallibility, The Conquest reminds us that books exist not only as doorways to other worlds, but also to help guide us toward discovering who we are and what we dare dream to one day become. A book for book lovers, The Conquest is Yxta Maya Murray’s finest and most ambitious novel yet.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Moving away from the urban barrio settings of her previous works, Murray (Locas; What It Takes to Get to Vegas) entwines the tales of two Latin American women separated by centuries in her third novel. Sara Gonzales is a rare-book restorer at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. While working on a 16th-century manuscript, she becomes engrossed in its story of an Aztec woman captured by Cort‚s and sent to Europe to entertain the pope. The narrator of the manuscript, "Helen," describes her encounters with the painter Titian, for whom she served as a muse; her many female lovers, including the adored Caterina, a bluestocking nun; and her ever-burning desire to avenge the deaths of her own people by assassinating Cort‚s, the pope and Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor. Sara's boss and the scholarly community consider the manuscript to be a work of fiction, but Sara believes otherwise-and endeavors to prove Helen's existence and authorship. Meanwhile, there is the issue of Sara's on-again, off-again relationship with Karl, the man she has loved since high school, who is set to marry another woman because Sara has never been able to fully commit. Sara's life, so claustrophobically focused on her work, stands in effective contrast to Helen's swashbuckling escapades across Mediterranean Europe; Sara's quest for personal satisfaction-as well as her thoughtful musings on history and her own sense of displacement as a Latina-are echoed on a grand scale in Helen's encounters with the Europeans. The subplot about Sara's literary sleuthing ties the two stories neatly together and gives the book a satisfying edge of suspense.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

What does the edgy, uncertain young Sara Rosario Gonzalez have in common with Helen, an impassioned Aztec woman whom Cort‚s enslaves and eventually gives to the Pope as a gift? In fact, though they are separated by centuries-as are the alternating parts of this book-Sara and Helen share a profound sense of displacement that resonates throughout. Sara, a restorer of rare books and manuscripts at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, has been assigned a 16th-century manuscript featuring Helen's exploits, from dalliances in Titian's Venice to an attempt on the Pope's life. Everyone else believes the manuscript to be a fantasy penned by a mad monk, but Sara demurs, insisting that whether or not the story is fancy, Helen herself is the author. As she digs deeper into the manuscript, Sara battles cultural confusion and an inability to commit to Karl, aptly summed up by her spending money for the wedding ring on a rare book. Whiting Award winner Murray does a splendid job of evoking the passions of both women, and she effectively fuses the two halves of the story. Helen's passages in particular could have sounded didactic or forced, but they are in fact vibrant-and for once, the italics used to set them off are easy to read. Recommended for most collections.
Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Rayo; 1st edition (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060093595
• ISBN-13: 978-0060093594
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,103,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Readers will be hooked on this book's strength -- sensuality, December 7, 2002

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Conquest (Hardcover)

Incunabula. Would you worship a goddess so named? Sara Gonzales, book restorer at the Getty Museum, has devoted her life to incunabula, a term referring to books created before the common use of the printing press. She has sacrificed love and marriage to pursue her career and has come to question this decision. Now, just as she learns that the man she has loved since her teen years, an astronaut-hopeful named Karl, has finally grown tired of their on-again-off-again romance and plans to marry someone else, she discovers a strange and compelling book.

Although it is believed to have been written by Padre Miguel Santiago de Pasamonte, a mad monk notorious for his sensual adventures and salacious novels, Sara comes to believe this book is not a novel at all; rather a memoir by the main character, an Aztec woman brought back to Europe by the explorer Cortes to amuse the Pope. The Aztec woman is known as Helen in Europe and she cuts a swashbuckling figure as she perfects her mystical juggling and bisexual seductive arts, all the while consumed with her thirst for revenge against Charles V, the ruler responsible for the destruction of her people.

The Conquest bounces between these two stories: Sara tries to decide what she really wants from her career and lost love, while Helen plays very modern games with gender and identity in order to pursue her agenda. Both women realize that the path to the objects of their desire can warp what they think they want, but the two stories haven't much else in common.

Karl is the weakest character in the book; the reader might wonder why Sara invests so much in a bland, fairly ordinary man with whom she has so little in common. Well, there's the sex, of course. The great strength of The Conquest is its sensuality. Whether Ms. Murray is describing the fine Japanese paper and Moroccan leather Sara uses in book restoration or the luxurious, decadent meals Helen discovers in the richest courts in Italy, she is contagious in her enjoyment of every gleam, every drop, every stroke. The characters often report that they are practically unconscious from pleasure, addled and woozy from their various indulgences. Their very hunger is seductive and the reader will have no trouble giving in and going along.

--- Reviewed by Colleen

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars intriguing comparative character study, January 28, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Conquest (Hardcover)

Sara Rosario Gonzales works as a rare-book restorer at Los Angeles' Getty Museum. Her current assignment is to mend a sixteenth century manuscript, the story of "Helen" an Aztec woman Cortez sent as a present to the Pope.

Upset in her personal life as her marine boyfriend is going to marry someone else because she failed to commit, Sara buries her unhappiness inside the restoration project. She soon believes that the story of the Aztec female is authentic, but everyone else insists its fiction. She begins researching clues to this Helen, her baptized name the Aztec received in Rome. For the first time in her shallow life, Sara commits to something with her heart as she seeks the truth whether Helen the Aztec really existed and had these wonderful adventures in Europe.

The contrast between Helen and Sara is startling as the former lives life to the fullest and the latter avoids life to the least degree yet both share in common a feeling of displacement. Obviously Helen's is easier to observe, but Sara's Latino heritage makes her feel out of sorts also. Sara's search for the truth links the two subplots neatly together. Though at times the tale slows down, fans obtain an intriguing character study that compares how two people living centuries apart share the same feelings of not belonging.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and well done for what it is...., August 16, 2005

By 

J. Mila (CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Conquest (Paperback)

Murray's book "The Conquest" follow's two women's lives and the experiences they have. One is a present day woman (Sara) finding difficulty choosing between her love of mysterious ancient manuscripts and that of a man, while the other is the focus of Sara's intellectual obsession; an Aztec woman who finds herself in Europe after the massacre of her people, and how she deals with desires of the body and revenge.

While I can say I enjoyed this book, the pace wasn't quite what I look for. It's not exactly a page turner, but there is interest enough to keep the story moving. My problem lies in the motivations and background of each woman. One bent on revenge who the next moment forgets her plans on a whim? and the other finding what truly makes her happy out of life and ends up sending some mixed messages about the past and present along the way.

It was a good read. It flowed well and I found the fictional experiences entertaining. However I don't know that it will be that memorable of a book which I'll remember a month from now.