Garoe

The end of the 15th century—Columbus has just made his famous voyage. The Canary Islands are inhabited by the descendants of slaves brought here eight hundred years ago to extract orchil, the only sea plant in the world from which true imperial purple dye can be obtained.

At that very time, a detachment of Spanish soldiers arrives on the farthest island of the archipelago—Yerro—under the command of Captain Castanosa. Formally, they are there to protect the population from raids by Berber and European slave traders; in truth, only Castanosa knows, they are there to mine and smuggle the same orchil, which no longer grows anywhere else on Earth.

The detachment’s commander and his sergeants are ready to commit any crimes for profit, but among them is also Lieutenant Gonzalo Baez— a young officer for whom the concepts of “honor” and “humanity” are not empty words.

A full of drama story of the collision of love and betrayal, dignity and baseness, courage and greed—taking place on a strip of volcanic land thirty kilometers long—won the Alfonso X El Sabio Prize for the best historical novel in 2011.