A History of Water [electronic resource] : Being an Account of a Murder, an Epic and Two Visions of Global History
Wilson-Lee, Edward2022
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‘A wonderful – and wonder-full – recreation of a crucial episode in European history’ DAILY TELEGRAPHA mind-blowing achievement’ ALBERTO MANGUELAt the heart of this story is a murder in a library, and a more subtle battle between two men.It was the thirtieth day of January 1574 that Damião de Gois died, although accounts of how he died vary. No one can really be sure. He was a man whose life had been tied up in records; the archive he oversaw sat in the Lisbon's Torre do Tombo - Tower of the Records - which was much more than a farrago of mouldering manuscripts. It was a puzzle box of enormous power. By cancelling a line in the right ledger, fates could be changed. Archivists could throw up dead ends in the world outside their tower, or spring open life's more difficult locks.It was in this era that Portugal threatened to tear itself in two. Sitting at Europe's edge, Lisbon was a channel to the rest of the world. And as influences from other continents arrived - through the mediums of food, religion, architecture, art, political freedom - Europe faced a decision. They could welcome Eastern ideas, globalisation, Islamic tradition, or they could reject. Damião, in all his influence, found himself seduced by the new forces of the world - a dangerous and criminal heretic act. A young man, Luis de Camões, who would become Portugal's national poet, did not and rallied against these new forces.Told with novelistic flair, this is the story of two men, and of two opposing forces. It investigates an unsolved murder in history, and the ways we attempt to kill an idea.
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[Place of publication not identified] : William Collins, 2022
Collation:
1 online resource (1 text file)
ISBN:
9780008358242
Language:
English
BRN:
3603514
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