Most of us have been taught to think of Christopher Columbus as a single-minded, courageous visionary whose navigational skills led him to "discover" the Americas. In this beautifully written revisionist biography, accessible to people of all ages, Hans Koning gives us the true history of Columbus' life and voyages. Koning describes how Columbus' consuming drive to send mountains of gold back to Spain shaped his life, beginning the story with his childhood in Genoa and ending after his return from his fourth and final voyage, an old man in disgrace. He shows how Columbus' discovery led to the enrichment of the conquerors through the plunder and murder of the native peoples of the Americas. In an afterword for teachers, Bill Bigelow a high school social studies teacher and the author of several curricula shows how the book can be imaginatively used in the classroom to teach students to read history skeptically. "The book is an idea that has finally found its time." --Publisher's Weekly "I think your book on Christopher Columbus is important. I'm more grateful for that book than any other book I have read in a couple of years." --Kurt Vonnegut

In "Columbus: His Enterprise", Hans Koning describes the personality and motivation of a man who changed the course of hisotry. Exploding the myth of the Great Navigator, the author reveals how Colombus accidentally found a continent and systematically pillaged its resources. This controversial book depicts a Columbus not only obsessed by gold but willing to endorse murder for it. 1992 marks the 500th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the New World. To the indigenous peoples of Latin America the event is no cause for rejoicing. In an afterwood to "Columbus: His Enterprise", Domitila Chungara, the renowned Bolivian activist, laments "The invasion of our lands, the theft of our riches...the most horrific thing that they could ever do to our people".

During the first half of the twentieth century, on an island in the Moluccas archipelago, only a few of the ancient spice gardens remain. One of these is home to Felicia, "the young lady of the small garden," the last descendant of a Dutch family that owned nutmeg plantations. All of her family passed away a long time ago, and although it seems she has nothing left, Felicia lives surrounded by the presence of a multitude of things: her home, the forest, the sea, the scents of the island, her memories, and fantasy. Myths and real-life stories that end tragically intersect in a place where grief and pain can't seem to alter the natural balance of life, and where the past is as powerful as the present. "En la primera mitad del siglo XX, en una isla del archipielago de las Molucas, se conservan ya pocos de los antiguos jardines de especias. En uno de ellos vive Felicia, "la dama del pequeno jardin," ultima descendiente de una familia holandesa propietaria de plantaciones de nuez moscada. Toda su familia ha muerto hace ya tiempo, y aunque en apariencia no le queda nada, Felicia vive rodeada por la presencia de un sinfin de cosas: su casa, el bosque, el mar, los aromas de la isla, sus recuerdos y fantasia. Leyendas e historias reales que terminan tragicamente se entrecruzan en un lugar donde la pena y el dolor no logran alterar el equilibrio natural de la existencia, y donde el pasado tiene tanta fuerza como el presente."