My second nomination is
The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami. This sounds like what I would consider a very unique and interesting mesh of different cultural and historical fiction. It's about a Spaniard in the 16th century who sailed with a crew of many hundreds to what is now Florida, on a quest to claim the Gulf Coast for the Spanish crown and in the process become as rich and famous as Cortes. However, after encounters with Native American tribes, disease, errors and starvation, all of the expedition died except for four- three Spaniards and a Moroccan slave (the Moor of the title). These four go on to make a journey across America. I thought it fit the topic because of the x marking the spot of the expeditions intended destination and quest, and also for the moor since as a slave he would've been basically muted ('x'-ed) as a slave from giving opinions and such, yet it sounds like his is the account of the journey we'd be reading.
Goodreads,
Preview, 327 pages, 2014, Morocco, U.S. & England
Quote:
In 1527, the conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez sailed from the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda with a crew of six hundred men and nearly a hundred horses. His goal was to claim what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States for the Spanish crown and, in the process, become as wealthy and famous as Hernán Cortés.
But from the moment the Narváez expedition landed in Florida, it faced peril—navigational errors, disease, starvation, as well as resistance from indigenous tribes. Within a year there were only four survivors: the expedition’s treasurer, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca; a Spanish nobleman named Alonso del Castillo Maldonado; a young explorer named Andrés Dorantes de Carranza; and Dorantes’s Moroccan slave, Mustafa al-Zamori, whom the three Spaniards called Estebanico. These four survivors would go on to make a journey across America that would transform them from proud conquistadores to humble servants, from fearful outcasts to faith healers.
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