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Local novelist reimagines overthrow of Inca empire

Inca Sunset transports the reader to the Spanish conquest of Peru in 1523
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(Brittany Gervais photo) Alan Lehmann with his second self-published novel Inca Sunset at the Elephant’s Ear Cafe in Terrace.

In Alan Lehmann’s latest novel, a doctoral student in archeology follows her colleagues along the slope of present-day Machu Picchu, and with the help from ‘a cheerless local’ finds the helmet of a Spanish conquistador inside a previously undiscovered chamber.

The find contradicts all known history of the of the site. Machu Picchu was found accidentally only a century ago by American historian Hiram Bingham. It was thought to have been undisturbed during the Spanish Inquisition of the 16th century.

“But what if that wasn’t true? What if the Spaniards were the first to find Machu Picchu?” asked Lehmann, a retired Caledonia Secondary School English teacher.

The question launched Lehmann into what’s now a 500-page novel of historical fiction titled Inca Sunset. It throws the reader from the relatively comfortable present setting to hundreds of years in the past at the start of Spain’s invasion of the Inca Empire.

The novel follows the fictional protagonist, Juan Barnabas, an eager young soldier who enlisted underneath the leadership of real-life Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro.

Pizarro organized three expeditions along the Pacific coast of South America between 1525 and 1530, eventually landing in the town of Cajamarca, Peru in 1532. Atahualpa was the lord of the Inca Empire. With an army of 80,000 men, he wasn’t concerned when rumours reached him of the 160 foreigners making their way inland. With a contingent of 5,000 soldiers, he agreed to meet with Pizarro in the valley’s town square.

“[The Incas] weren’t sure if the Spaniards were connected to their old mythology or if they were bandits that could be taken as slaves,” said Lehmann. “He felt that he had nothing to fear.”

Turns out, nothing was farther from the truth. Pizarro’s men opened fire on the trapped Incan soldiers and slaughtered all of them, capturing Atahualpa. They held him hostage and executed him a year later, effectively bringing an end to the largest empire in pre-Columbian America.

Lehmann reimagines the event from Atahualpa’s perspective in the novel’s 31st chapter but brings the storyline back to Barnabas’ point of view as his character begins to grow his own story of hope and love out of the violence. He said he deliberately made the protagonist a curious observer who wanted to learn more about the Inca civilization instead of believing they were simply savages.

“I read about the Spanish invasion when I was a child and was utterly amazed,” Lehmann said as he spoke about the collapse of the advanced Inca civilization. “The collision of cultures when people don’t understand each other can create an enormous mess.”

While Lehmann said he started writing fiction late in life, he said the stories unfold for him “like television” and he can almost hear the voices of his characters as he writes.

Inca Sunset is Lehmann’s second self-published work following Hamlet the Novel in 2015, and while the retelling of a Shakespearean fable is quite different from Inca Sunset, Lehmann said they were both written to be understood by modern audiences. The novel is sold at Misty River Books and can also be found at the Terrace Public Library.


 


brittany@terracestandard.com

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