From the author of the Magellan biography Over the Edge of the World a mesmerizing new account of the great explorer Christopher Columbuss voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a trading route to China and his unexpected landfall in the Americas is a watershed event in world history Yet Columbus made three more voyages within the span of only a decade each designed to demonstrate that he could sail to China within a matter of weeks and convert those he found there to Christianity These later voyages were even more adventurous violent and ambiguous but they revealed Columbuss uncanny sense of the sea his mingled brilliance and delusion and his superb navigational skills In all these exploits he almost never lost a sailor By their conclusion however Columbus was broken in body and spirit If the first voyage illustrates the rewards of exploration the latter voyages illustrate the tragic costs- political moral and economicIn rich detail Laurence Bergreen re-creates each of these adventures as well as the historical background of Columbuss celebrated controversial career Written from the participants vivid perspectives this breathtakingly dramatic account will be embraced by readers of Bergreens previous biographies of Marco Polo and Magellan and by fans of Nathaniel Philbrick Simon Winchester and Tony Horwitz.
