The Accidental Indies

"Exquisitely written. The Accidental Indies is a brilliant and utterly original work of literature." - Eric Ormsby "I was utterly enchanted by The Accidental Indies. With humour, inventiveness and an exquisite gift for words, Robert Finley has rescued Columbus's adventures from the excesses of hagiography and the disparagements of outrage, and restored them, once again, to the realm of myth from whence they sprung." - Alberto Manguel, author of A History of Reading and The Dictionary of Imaginary Places "The Accidental Indies is a gem - it is boldly imagined and splendidly written." - John Casey, author of the National Book Award winner, Spartina "Imagine the infant Columbus vaulting out of his cradle, striking his head on the world, and spawning his megalomaniacal wanderlust. Thus Robert Finley begins his exquisite prose poem, The Accidental Indies, a fantasy of precise language and provocative imagery. I suspect Finley of past lives or channeling or worse, because he seems to know what really happened heading westward over the water in 1492. You do not simply read this story, you ride it, relish it, and sometimes you find yourself IN it." - Dava Sobel, author of Longitude and Galileo's Daughter. "This is a beautiful book - a kind of magic, shamanic flight to find the inner meaning of Columbus. It is a work of literary power and rare imagination - a discovery of the great discoverer ... It is a rare combination of literature and history in a form that is daring and inspiring." - Hugh Brody, author of Maps & Dreams "The Accidental Indies reads with a lyricism and intelligence that is hard to match in other modern fictions. It could be classified along with Michael Ondaatje's Coming through Slaughter and Anne Michaels' Fugitive Pieces." - Carolyn Smart