This is a beautifully written account of an imaginary period in Mexico at the time of Montezuma. Imaginary because in this alternate history, the Christians never regained control of Spain from the Moors. Instead of Spanish imperial conquistadors, the Aztec kingdom was colonised by Islamic Spanish colonists who established what they called the New Maghreb.

At the start of the novel, we meet the influential Jewish merchant Eli Ben Abram, married to a headstrong Nahua woman, Malinala, formerly enslaved. Through her stories we learn about the folklore and traditions of the indigenous peoples. Eli is an important man, friends with the emperor, able to closely observe the changes that are afoot.

“From my conversations with Moctezuma, who takes an interest in such things, I know that he considers God to be an incarnation of the Feathered Snake, the Smoking Mirror or the Left-Handed Hummingbird, depending on the time of day. I have not told the imam this. The poor man has enough to deal with.”

Then there is the water god, an axolotl: a fish with hands. Malinala tells him of the history of the Seven Caves, when seven tribes emerged from seven rocky wombs in the north and made their way to the south. The Mexica were favoured by the Left-Handed Hummingbird, warring with the other tribes either killing them or enslaving them. For a time they stayed in Aztlan, the Place of the White-Feathered Heron. All these stories flesh out the society that Eli has moved to.

The Jew is haunted by echoes of the past. The past he left behind in the Old World is catching up with him in the New Maghreb. Until now he has been protected as a ‘person of the book’. But all that seems about to change. Suddenly his friend Montezuma is acting strangely, many sacrifices are being made on the stepped pyramid, the volcano is rumbling ominously and there are rumours of new invaders from across the sea.

I really enjoyed the descriptive writing in Red Smoking Mirror, but what I enjoyed most were the snippets of background into society. For instance, the local name for a horse meant fast deer, a camel was an ugly deer and a mule was a strong deer. I also appreciated how Eli’s wife was able to act as a go-between because she could speak different languages and was an independent character connecting people.
“We were two links in a chain, connecting one thing to the next. Arabic to Mayayan. Mayayan to Nahuatl. Nahuatl to Arabic.
I freed her. She freed us.”

It’s unfortunate that it took me so long to write up my review because I received a digital ARC from NetGalley, intending to review it before publication. If I’d done it earlier, I would have been even more enthusiastic because it was still fresh in my mind. For what it’s worth, my opinions are my own, not influenced by the free copy.

An original, entertaining and well plotted alternate history set in a world where a number of what-if took place and a lot is going on.
I loved the storytelling and the excellent world building. Well plotted and intriguing
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

And what is there left to say about this walk through Tenochtitlan? Only that dogs are everywhere and that the sun is dark ... Only that the smoky sky is teeming with frightened birds, that the temple steps are wet, that body after body rolls down the angled, steep decline, their torsos blue ... [loc. 2013]
Eli Ben Abram is a Jewish merchant, born in the Caliphate of Andalus and now trading in the New Maghreb. He came across the Sea of Darkness to Mexica, in the first fleet of traders: now he lives in the great city of Tenochtitlan, in the shadow of the Smoking Mountain, with his Nahua wife Malinala. The traders from Andalus have prospered among the Mexica, but there are rumours of a great Moorish army bound for the city, there to root out the impurities of tubaq and xocolatl. And there is dissent among the elders of the Moorish quarter; and Malinala tells her husband tales of the Thirteen Heavens and the Nine Hells, the Five Suns, the Smoking Mirror, the Feathered Serpent...

This is a world in which, as Hunt says in his afterword, "the Reconquest never happened. The Islamic Golden Age .. continued into the Age of Exploration; and Spain, as we know it today, never came into existence. ... the first ships that crossed the Atlantic were crewed by seafaring Moors rather than by Spaniards." [loc. 2362] Hunt depicts a more peaceful (and less disease-ridden) meeting of the two cultures, though the seeds of bloody conquest have already been sown. There are some familiar historical figures (the emperor Moctezuma, La Malinche, and a Genoan named Christoforo) and, as the novel progresses, a sense of historical inevitability. Eli is an intriguing narrator, with his helpless love for his young wife, and the secret he's carried with him since he met a man from Genoa in a tavern in Cadiz. He sometimes seems wilfully blind to the undercurrents of what's happening around him, and he is sometimes less than kind to those he encounters: but his admiration for Mexica culture (evocatively described) runs through this novel.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK publication date is 06 JUL 2023.

Red Smoking Mirror, scheduled for publication on the 6th July is a wonderful suspension of reality, whose rich descriptions transport you to a world which has a sense of familiarity, supporting what knowledge you may have of post-colonial Mexico, whilst also feeling totally fantastical. To be clear, whilst given the genre ‘Historical-Fiction’, this short novel is very loose in terms of its accuracy to the truth. This is a look through the lens of an alternative history, a ‘what if?’ type of book. Would the outcome of history be any different? The protagonist of the novel, Eli Ben Abram, a Jewish merchant, and husband to Malinala, a Nahuatl woman and freed slave, acts as the conduit for the reader to experience this alternative historical path, and it is through his eyes which we see the world in which this novel takes place. However, must like the naivety of Abram himself, it is short-sighted to believe that much would change under differing circumstances. With the threat of war, illness, and unsettlement within the town of Tenochtitlan, tensions rise, trust is broken and dark secrets long buried are upturned to disrupt the status quo.

For me, the strength of this book came from the setting. Nick Hunt has done a fantastic job in creating the vivid descriptions of the world in which the characters of this novel exist, with the landscape almost operating as a main character in itself. As a reader, you can perfectly visualize the busy marketplaces, hear the ominous groans of the smoking mountain bearing down upon the settlement, smell the xocolatl that Malinala prepares for Eli. Hunt has created something very special with his words in this story. Whilst I must admit that I prefer my historical fiction steeped in a little more fact than Red Smoking Mountain is, I found this book an enjoyable light read, which allowed me to suspend my belief for 272 pages and lose myself in a world I had not yet experienced.