Tall tale

‘Cursed’ ancient novel finally comes to print

A 400-year-old novel charting imperial adventures in Spain’s Golden Age, long believed lost and rumoured to be cursed, has been published for the first time.

Written by a Malaga-born monk between 1608 and 1615, Historia del

Huérfano (The Orphan’s Story) tells the tale of a Granada orphan who travelled to the Spanish empire in the Americas to seek his fortune.

For centuries the 328-page manuscript was thought lost, until it was discovered in 1965 in New York. A string of attempts to publish it then foundered for mysterious reasons.

But it is now finally available thanks to the José Antonio de Castro Foundation.