About this audiobook
Thomas Wingfield leaves England in pursuit of a personal enemy and reaches the world of the Aztecs during the Spanish conquest. His encounters with unfamiliar customs draw him into relationships whose obligations extend far beyond the purpose of his original journey. Otomie, Montezuma's daughter, becomes an important presence within a life increasingly shaped by competing loyalties.
H. Rider Haggard connects a private search for vengeance with a historical catastrophe experienced through individual perspectives. The narrator's account brings adventure, affection and cultural misunderstanding into close contact. Choices made under pressure cannot be separated from the conflict surrounding them, even when their motives appear entirely personal.
The novel explores commitment, revenge and the difficulty of returning unchanged from an experience that has altered one's attachments. Its historical setting belongs to an imagined narrative rather than an unmediated record, inviting readers to follow how a traveller becomes involved in a struggle whose significance he could not initially understand.
