The Moor's Account tells the tale of early European conquest of the New World from a new perspective: that of Estebanico, a black Moorish slave on the doomed Narvaez expedition. While fighting for survival among new lands and peoples, Estebanico navigates ambivalent relationships with the Spaniards, leading a precarious journey from slave to conquistadors' comrade. 
 Rapacious greed is the villain in in this story: the Spaniards (as well as Estebanico himself) fluctuate variously between a hunger for gold and a respect for universal human dignity. Estebanico emphasizes the power of storytelling, narrative, and names to wield power or to heal. 
 I had the pleasure of reading this book alongside its source text, Cabeza de Vaca's Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America - so I got to see what parts of Cabeza de Vaca's narrative were challenged, omitted, or embellished by Lalami's fictionalized Estebanico. Very well done, and very much in keeping with the tone of Cabeza de Vaca's account (which is to say: a little bit dry, with constant acknowledgement of the reader).