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“…one of the most readable, engaging and provoking books of the season, hands down. “Nigel Cliff’s lively recreation of the life of Vasco da Gama… skilful writer, he charms the readers with lively dialogue, vivid details, and overwrought descriptions…” “A fascinating and exciting story, ably told” Eric Ormsby, New York Times Book Review
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From the fabled Henry the Navigator who, despite his appellation, ‘never set foot on an oceangoing ship,’ to Vasco da Gama himself, at once steely and quixotic, to formidable figures like Magellan and the brutal Alfonso de Albuquerque, who terrorized his victims by threatening to build a fort out of their bones and nail their ears to the door, he brings 16 th-century Portugal in all its splendor and squalor pungently to life.” “…lively and ambitious… has a novelist’s gift for depicting character. “Nigel Cliff’s excellent book… This excellent book tells the story with the swagger and excitement it deserves…” ‘What Columbus had promised,’ Nigel Cliff announces in this stirringly epic book, ‘Gama had delivered.’… Gama’s incident-rich voyage offers a far more thrilling narrative than Columbus’s lucky blunder across the Atlantic… Cliff skilfully depicts it as a last after-echo of the medieval crusades… This is broad-brush history, but it is accurate, and enlivened by splendid spots of colour… Cliff’s portrayal of Gama’s voyage as a ‘last crusade’ is persuasive, as is his argument that ‘the moment when Vasco da Gama arrived in the Indian Ocean was the moment when Europe could begin to believe that the global balance of power had shifted its way.’ An intriguing epilogue attempts to put the expedition in a modern context.” “Vasco da Gama not only outshone Columbus, argues this stirring narrative – his conquests changed the globe…. Named one of the “Top 100 Books of 2011” by the Kansas City Star Previously published in the US and other countries as Holy War: How Vasco da Gama’s Epic Voyages Turned the Tide in a Centuries-old Clash of Civilizations. Now that the world is once again tipping back to the East, The Last Crusade offers a key to understanding age-old religious and cultural rivalries that are newly resurgent today. Offering a provocative new look at one of the most divisive chapters in history, Nigel Cliff argues that the dividing line between the Muslim and Christian eras-the medieval and modern ages-was drawn by da Gama. It is also a rousing tale of superstition, intrigue, treachery, bravado, brinkmanship, and religion that explores the confused, sometimes comical, yet ultimately tragic collision of cultures. The Last Crusade is the epic story of da Gama and his crew of adventurers, chivalric knights, slaves, scribes, and convicts. In two voyages spanning six years, da Gama fought a running sea battle that would tip the balance of power between Islam and Christianity and change the fate of three continents. With blood red crosses emblazoned on their sails, these explorers arrived in the Muslim East just as the hostilities between Christianity and Islam had risen to a new level of intensity. In July 1497, a small flotilla headed by captain Vasco da Gama set sail from Lisbon on a harrowing journey to discover a sea route from Europe to the fabled lands of Asia.