Now I Surrender

So original and funny… with Enrigue living between worlds—the worlds of the past and the present, but also of the real and the imagined * The New Yorker *
A baroque and semi-comic anti-Western… You can sense a bit of Bolaño in Enrigue: the postmodern playfulness, the cosmopolitanism, the historical conscience. Enrigue’s new one has a bit of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian… He’s one of the best we have, and he’s not done pushing against conventions * New York Times *
A thrillingly alive account… Enrigue recasts the so-called story of how the west was won, stripping it of the cultural shibboleths that have long dominated the discourse * Financial Times *
By turns an impassioned anti-imperialist lament, a gripping alt-western, a meditation on human freedom, an autofictional travelogue… [Enrique] slowly binds the narrative threads tighter and tighter… revealing the pulsating truth at the heart of his book. For all that it might be the incarcerated Apaches who are at the sharp end of this tragedy, the forces that apparently necessitated their demise… have, Enrigue suggests, denied us all the chance of achieving the highest forms of human flourishing * TLS *
Enrigue has a long career of writing brilliant and gripping literary accounts of Mexico’s history with a daring flair. His work is a moving and complex love letter to Mexico, mesmerizing anyone who has ever been awestruck by the country… It’s a slice of bloody American history with a timely edge * Los Angeles Times *
Offer[s] the satisfactions of Westerns, historical epics, and metafiction even as [Enrigue] overturns all three traditions… Enrigue is an erudite, charismatic raconteur… and his novel distills a byzantine swirl of historical events through the lives of a handful of very colorful characters – Carolina A Miranda * The Atlantic *
The Mexican novelist Álvaro Enrigue has a flair for bringing historical figures to life in fresh, unforgettable ways… a celebration of Apache defiance and resistance * LitHub *
[A] masterpiece… A collage of archival research, field diaries, film criticism, travelogues, nature writing, and narrative history that blurs the line between fiction and nonfiction, Enrigue’s book accomplishes a nearly impossible feat: It succeeds equally well as a breathtaking historical novel and as a groundbreaking work of political theory… Against the savagery of imperialism, Now I Surrender offers the nobility of statelessness * The Nation *
A kind of cubist Western, snarling convenient cultural narratives from a dizzying array of eras and perspectives * NPR *
Álvaro Enrigue is a contemporary master of historical fiction and his new book continues his complex explorations of colonialism in the Americas * LitHub Most Anticipated Books *
Simply no one is writing today like Álvaro Enrigue (and credit as well to his longtime translator, Natasha Wimmer)… It’s a mesmerizing read, and one that invites readers to learn about Apachería and unpack widely-held misconceptions about American history * Town & Country *
Few authors are as ambitious as Enrigue, and his latest is further proof. Part epic and part alternative Western, Now I Surrender takes precise aim at the lies that the nation is built upon * Chicago Review of Books *
A major work of historical reclamation… an eloquent rejoinder to the mythos that made two countries while erasing the lives of their original inhabitants * Publishers Weekly *
In treating the details of war and conquest as symbolic playthings, Enrigue brings to mind authors such as Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut – and of course, Thomas Pynchon – Boris Kachka * The Atlantic *
Where US authors seeking to revise the myths of the West have often dialed up the bloodshed … Enrigue’s preferred twist is a wry strain of humor… [His] deft handling of his densely researched material shines here, as do his cheeky departures from the historical record… By jumping back and forth between the perspectives of Mexican and American characters—as well as the immigrant narrator, whose experience spans both countries—he brings their visions of the Apache enemy, along with their self-justifications, into unbearable tension with each other * 4Columns *
A thought-provoking meditation on defiance, defeat, and assimilation * Booklist *
As with Enrigue’s earlier books, he’s determined to upset narrative convention, and Wimmer, his longtime translator, handles his veering skillfully. Enrigue’s approach isn’t so much to lament the end of Apachería so much as to admire the steeliness of a tribe that survived centuries-long attempts to subdue it. A curious but effective treatment of an underappreciated effort to resist imperialism * Kirkus *
It’s refreshing to read the work of an author unafraid to challenge readers with an adventure that is as brainy as it is fun… it’s a treat for patient readers who love historical fiction * Book Page *
A novel that roams fearlessly across styles, eras and countries, one of Mexico’s outstanding storytellers * Financial Times, Best summer books of 2026 *

lvaro Enrigue (Author)

lvaro Enrigue is a prize-winning Mexican writer whose most recent novel is You Dreamed of Empires. His work has appeared in The New York Times, the London Review of Books, El Pais, and n+1, among other publications. A former Fellow at the Cullman Center and at Princeton University, he teaches Latin American Literature at Hofstra University and lives with his family in New York City.

Natasha Wimmer (Translator)

Natasha Wimmer’s translations include lvaro Enrigue’s You Dreamed of Empires and Sudden Death and Roberto Bolano’s The Savage Detectives and 2666. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.