Civilisations, by Laurent Binet

I’ve long wondered what the world would be like had Europeans never colonized the Americas. Would the original tribes and nations have grouped together into countries with distinct borders as they did in Europe? Would modern history have taken radically different directions? How would art and science, music and medicine look today? What would the Americas be called?

Laurent Binet takes this thought and goes a step further, turning history it on its head by asking how the Renaissance world might have developed had Europe been colonized by Atahualpa and his Incas. Written in four parts, with each taking a different literary style, the background to the discovery of Europe is entirely plausible, and by using characters from history throughout, the whole story is quite believable.

What fascinated me most was the Inca perspective on European behaviour – I remember being taught at school that the first Christians in Latin America found a brutal people who sacrificed humans to pagan gods. In this story, the Incas find a brutal people who fight and torture one another for worshiping their god in different ways, and whose god allows the poor to suffer greatly while the rich live in luxury. The explanations of how the Incas bring peace and prosperity to the ordinary people of Europe really make you stop and think.

I enjoyed this book, though I didn’t find it a particularly easy read, as there are so many Inca words to contend with! I imagine for readers more used to fantasy epics, historical sagas or narrative history this would be an easier read, and I’d be fascinated to know what experts in the pre-Christian Americas make of it. A fascinating counterfactual history, and definitely a book that makes you think… what if?

- Paul

Hardback, £16.99. Find this in the Fiction section!