Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme started by @Lauren’s Page Turners but is currently hosted by Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog. This meme is quite easy to follow – just randomly pick a book from your to-be-read list and explain why you want to read it. It is that simple.

This week’s book:

Now I Surrender by Álvaro Enrigue

Blurb from Goodreads

A visionary novelist imagines the fiercely fought end of an epoch of almost unimaginable freedom and radically recasts the story of how the West was “won.”

In the contested borderlands between Mexico and the United States, a woman flees into the desert after a devastating raid on her dead husband’s ranch. A lieutenant colonel in service to the fledgling Republica, sent in pursuit of cattle rustlers, discovers he’s on the trail of a more dramatic abduction. Decades later, with political ambitions on the line, the American and Mexican militaries try to maneuver Geronimo, the most legendary of Apache warriors, into surrender. In our own day, a family travels through the region in search of a truer version of the past.

Orchestrated with a stunningly imagined cast of characters, both historical and purely fictional, their storylines playing out in multiple eras, Now I Surrender is Álvaro Enrigue’s most expansive and impassioned novel yet. Part epic, part alt-Western, it weaves past and present, myth and history, into a searing elegy for a way of life that was an incarnation of true liberty—and an homage to the spark in us that still thrills to its memory.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday, everyone! Just like that, we are nearly in the seventh month of the year. How time flies! As always, time takes its natural course, ever flowing forward, with no regard for any of us. It does not wait for anyone. As such, I hope the year is going—and will continue to go—well for everyone. I hope the rest of the year will be kind to you all. Things are still erratic, whether at work or in geopolitics. I hope the tension in the Middle East begins to de-escalate and that peace is gradually restored. I also hope things start to slow down at work. They have been hectic lately, and I am hoping things will start looking up. Anyway, I hope everyone has had a good start to the workweek. I hope everyone is in a place of comfort. The new week beckons with hope and fresh starts, and I hope it unfolds in everyone’s favor. Wishing you continued success and happiness. I hope everyone is doing well, in body, mind, and spirit.

I know—not many people get excited about Mondays (though I’m sure a few are out there). I, too, am not exactly a fan. Still, I hope that as the week moves forward, you gradually gain a semblance of momentum. I hope everyone’s workweek goes smoothly. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well—mentally, emotionally, and physically. After spending the first two months of the year reading works by Latin American and Caribbean writers, I have been immersing myself in the works of European authors. I chose to read European writers because most of the books on my 2026 reading challenge list are by European authors. Thankfully, after spending four months in European literary territory, I was finally able to complete all the books on my reading challenge lists. With the start of a new month, I also commenced a new literary journey. With July being my birth month, I have commenced a venture across Asian literature. I am currently reading Booker Prize-winning Indian writer Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.

However, I am not featuring works of any Asian writer in this weekly bookish meme. As the year approaches its halfway mark, literary publications have begun sharing their lists of the best books of the year so far. This is how I came across Álvaro Enrigue and his novel Now I Surrender. Interestingly, I have already featured the Mexican writer before. I featured You Dreamed of Empires in a previous Goodreads Monday update. I have also listed the book in one of my Top Five Tuesday updates as one of the 2024 releases I am looking forward to. Its promise of bringing Tenochtitlan back to life during its peak is another factor in my interest in the book. I can remember how during my high school years I read extensively about Aztec and Mayan history. My research paper was also about the rise and fall of empires and these two were among the empires that intrigued me. However, I am yet to obtain a copy of the book.

Two years later, I have learned about Enrigue’s latest release, Now I Surrender. Originally published in 2018 as Ahora me rindo y eso es todo, the novel is also a work of historical fiction that takes the readers to 1880s Mexico. The storyline follows a young Mexican woman named Camila, who was married to an elderly ranch owner. The ranch, however, was besieged by Apache warriors. They wiped everyone in the ranch, except for Camila who they abducted. I do find the parallels between Enrigue’s two novels quite intriguing. Bloodshed is a common denominator. Still, the two novels’ premises piqued my interest. For now, I hope I can secure a copy of it. How about you, fellow readers? How was your Monday? What books have you recently added to your reading list? Drop your thoughts in the comments.

For now—happy Monday, and as always, happy reading!