Presenting an alternative history of South America through nine vanished countries, Blair's wonderfully evocative volume ranges from rebel Inca dynasties to Bolivia's landlocked navy and beyond.
An adventurous, dazzling and original history that brings South America’s epic past and fascinating present to life.
Patria tells an alternative history of South America, spanning thousands of miles and five centuries to the present. Looking beyond modern borders, Laurence Blair takes as his waymarks nine countries that can’t be found on a map: vanished realms, half-imagined utopias and dismembered homelands.
Blair’s journey ranges from ancient Amazonian city-states and a rebel Inca dynasty in the jungle – via a Brazilian Wakanda that defied slavery, Bolivia’s landlocked navy, and the Patagonian power that defeated the Spanish – to fall in with the African freedom fighters who marched over the Andes, and the New World Napoleon who led Paraguay to its ruin.
Groundbreaking recent scholarship, striking archaeological discoveries and vivid eyewitness reporting – including encounters with drug lords, Indigenous leaders, refugees and former guerrillas – weave a story of survival, resistance and revolution, restoring South America to the centre of world history.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781847924681
Number of pages: 448
Weight: 673 g
Dimensions: 242 x 163 x 38 mm
Extraordinary … [t]his debut turns the familiar story of South America’s origins inside out … There’s something oneiric about South America in Blair’s storytelling; its broiling jungles, smothering cloud forests and desiccated badlands are landscapes on which dreams are built on. … Romantic, adventurous and thrilling, Patria achieves something remarkable. Not only does Blair bring the stink and splendour of these “forgotten nations” to pungent life, but he also forces us to consider how, and why, they came to be lost in the first place. His travels deserve their own TV series. And his book’s import deserves a wide hearing – that to ignore South America’s past is to ignore the planet’s future. - Alex Diggins, The Telegraph
Blair argues that South America is overlooked by the rest of the world, especially Britain … His alternative history aims to redress this deficit … A vivid and wide-ranging account - Tom Robbins, Financial Times Books of the Year, 2024
Energetic and scholarly… Blair is a engaging and knowledgeable guide - Andreas Campomar, Critic
A work of scholarship in its own right ... Patria also has a descriptive flair that lifts Blair’s stories off the page. Best of all, it introduces us to the myriad voices within South America that are retelling their own past - Oliver Balch, Spectator
Sparkling ... rich and revealing ... Braiding strands of memoir with others of narrative history and journalistic reportage, Patria has a mood that is really quite compelling. For those of you looking for a fresh and immersive read as the nights grow longer, Blair's portrait of this 'lost continent' will make a fine choice indeed. - Unseen Histories
Past and present cleverly entwine in this erudite, pacy and brilliant book - Sophy Roberts, author of THE LOST PIANOS OF SIBERIA
A distinctive and original account of an under-appreciated continent ... Patria is a feat of historical detail. Blair is an excellent guide - Daniel Rey, History Today
An ambitious, wide-ranging, and illuminating book focusing on South American peoples, places, cultures and eras long overlooked, repressed or misunderstood. ... a fascinating narrative [of] wit, flair and passion - Shafik Meghji, Geographical
Laurence Blair brings you to some of the hardest-to-reach places on the planet with his lively writing and deep reporting in a book that dives into the rarely told, often ugly and always fascinating history of this beautiful and exploited continent. How did South America arrive here and where is it going? Patria is one of the best books yet to try to answer that question. - Jack Nicas, Brazil bureau chief, NEW YORK TIMES
This book is a gem: an exuberant history of South America, written with scholarly verve and literary dexterity, and an unputdownable delight from start to finish. - Jon Lee Anderson, New Yorker correspondent
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