The Lord of the last days: Visions of the year 1000

by Homero Aridjis

As the world hovers perilously on the brink of a new millennium, Spanish monk Alfonso de Leon takes a bloody comet as a sign of the coming of the Antichrist and a portent of the end of time. Miracles and monstrous infants abound. Soon Moorish and Christian armies will clash in an apocalyptic battle for control of Spain. The war of two civilizations is embodied in a poignant duel to the death between twin brothers born to a concubine in the harem at Cordoba: Alfonso, scribe and illuminator of the Book of Revelation, and Abd Allah, the Black Rider, ruthless captain of al-Mansur's troops. Face-to-face after years of separation, each strives to free himself from the other's uncanny hold. Two women, Jimena and Almarada, share the brothers' destinies. Using his lyrical and narrative powers and a keen eye for doomsday terrors and superstitions, Aridjis conjures up a panoply of compelling characters - the false messiah Isidoro the First, who does a brisk trade in spurious relics; wandering minstrels Sancho Saborejo and Oro Maria; the hermaphrodite Dona Miguel; saintly virgins, wistful eunuchs, hermits, monks and nuns - while contrasting the military might and sensuous splendor of the Cordoban caliphate with the austerity and religious fervor of the Christian kingdoms to the north.

Genres: Historical Fiction

259 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Homero Aridjis, a Mexican writer and diplomat, was born to a Greek father and Mexican mother; he was the youngest of five brothers. As a child, Aridjis would often walk up a hillside near his home to watch the migrating monarch butterflies. As he grew older logging thinned the forest. This and other events in his life caused him to co-found the Grupo de los Cien, the Group of 100, an association of one hundred artists and intellectuals that became heavily involved in trying to draw attention to and solve environmental problems in Mexico.

Aridjis has published 38 books of poetry and prose, many of them translated into a dozen languages. His achievements include: the Xavier Villarrutia Prize for best book of the year for Mirándola dormir, in 1964; the Diana-Novedades Literary Prize for the outstanding novel in Spanish, for Memorias del nuevo mundo, in 1988; and the Premio Grinzane Cavour, for best foreign fiction, in 1992, for the Italian translation of 1492, Vida y tiempos de Juan Cabezón de Castilla.1492 The Life and Times of Juan Cabezon of Castile was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Twice the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Aridjis has taught at Indiana University, New York University and Columbia, and held the Nichols Chair in Humanities and the Public Sphere at the University of California, Irvine. The Orion Society presented him with its John Hay Award for significant achievement in writing that addresses the relationship between people and nature. He received the Prix Roger Caillois in France for his poetry and prose and the Smederevo Golden Key Prize for his poetry. In 2005 the state of Michoacan awarded him the first Erendira State Prize for the Arts. Eyes to See Otherwise: Selected Poems of Homero Aridjis is a wide-ranging bilingual anthology of his poetry.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Trudy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un libro erudito e interesante, pero muy oscuro y laberintezco para mi gusto. Dos gemelos idénticos pero polos opuestos, uno representa el mal y siempre se viste de negro (y es musulmán), el otro un monje cristiano representa el bien y se la pasa viendo visiones apocalípticas y mesiánicas... o sea muy "bien versus mal" casi caricaturezco. Sin embargo, representa bien a la sociedad del siglo 1000, sus conflictos y sus terrores. Una novela histórica experimental .

[Carlos Cumpian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it under the talented pen of translator Betty Ferber, in English back in 1999. This author is one of Mexico's most respected poets and environmental activists. The NYT Book Review dares to compare to Cervantes's Don Quixote...I read it before 9/11, as the Muslims and Christians once again began to look at each other with menace. I went back to medieval Spain in this novel.

[R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twins, they are the union of opposites. Their conflict is reflected in the discord between León and Córdoba. It is the year 1000 and all sorts of cultists mill about with their respective versions of the end is nigh. Chapters, visions as the author calls them, introduce all sorts of kooks and charlatans plying their doctrinal wares. At the end, there is a battle equal in bloodiness to a book of the Iliad.

Wish the author had cleaned up the narrative thread. It is a bit too convoluted and some chapters are just boring.

[Sandra Huerta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro de 400 páginas al que le sobran como 200 de innecesaria erudición. Eso sí, la batalla final, está increíblemente bien escrita, lo que me dio un poco de rabia pues las intrincadas páginas anteriores no hacen sino ponernos en contexto para llegar a ese punto. Me pareció más autocomplacencia de parte del autor que cualquier otra cosa. No puedo poner medias estrellas, pero le doy, en mi mente, 2.5.

[Marta Guerrero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bueno para conocer la época, e incluso el libro está escrito con ese lenguaje.

[Dudu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Çeviri kötü. Yeni basım yapılmalı.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

This brief historical novel is narrated by Alfonso of Leon, a fictional(?) monk living in the northwestern Spanish city of Leon during the turn of the 11th century. Alfonso is a mystic who believes himself to be a messianic figure. He is also the twin brother of Abd Allah, the vicious lieutenant of al-Mansur, the Moorish ruler of southern Spain who is heading towards Leon with his army.
As a historical novel The Lord of the Last Days is not very impressive - it doesn't do much to convey a strong feeling of time and place, nor is it particularly concerned with historical events or people. However, the book is a wonderfully poetic meditation on mystical religious fervor, millenarian belief, and the meeting of the holy and the profane.

[Alejandro Ramirez · Rating 1 out of 5]

Demasiado obscuro, se preocupa más por recrear el castellano del siglo X, que de hacerlo disfrutable para un lector del siglo XXI. No valió la pena el esfuerzo de andar buscando una libreria por todo Playa del Carmen.

Preguntando en la calle
- hay una libreria por aqui?
- una que?
- un lugar para comprar libros
-.. asi como para colorear? (mirandome con extrañeza)