While this inspired the character of Waman, another character in his novel was inspired by someone whom the Spanish left behind in Peru - to become an interpreter and possibly a spy. 'He was used as the interpreter in the conversations with the Peruvians, but he was obviously clearly conflicted and quite traumatized by what had happened to him, because he was taken off this ship at age 13 or so and brought back at age 18 and plunged into these world-changing events.' He was with the Spaniards for some five years before they came back to actually invade Peru with an army,' Wright said. 'From the early sources we know that he was taken to Spain.

The Spaniards razed the vessel and captured a young man to train as an interpreter. He said that historical documents tell of an early Spanish exploratory voyage down the coast from Panama that met a large trading ship carrying gold, silver, cloth and other fine goods from the Incas. He said Waman, the protagonist of his new book, is based on someone in history about whom not much is known. Wright, who now lives on Salt Spring Island, studied archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge University.

Wright drew on his wealth of knowledge about Latin America for the book, having spent time traveling and living in Peru in the 70s and 80s, and having published the travel memoir Cut Stones and Crossroads of his time tracing the history of the Incas. CBC Books: Beginning, middle and end: 3 sentences from Ronald Wright's The Gold Eaters.'I'd always felt that the story of what happened to the Incas in the 16th century had never really penetrated our general cultural consciousness.' 'This story has haunted me throughout my writing career,' said Wright, who has written ten books of fiction and nonfiction published in 16 languages. The Gold Eaters is set in both Peru and Spain in the 1500s, and is told through the eyes of Waman, a young Incan boy who is captured by the Spanish and used as a translator. historian and novelist spent in Peru and from actual persons in the 16th century.

Ronald Wright's latest novel The Gold Eaters- which tells the story of a young boy who becomes entangled in the Spanish invasion of the Incan empire - was inspired both by the years the award-winning B.C.

The gold eaters by ronald wright