Cimarronin

by Neal Stephenson

A disgraced outcast samurai living in early seventeenth-century Manila, Kitazume is contemplating ritual suicide when a divine force (of a sort) intervenes: Luis, a rogue Jesuit priest and Kitazume’s longtime friend. At Luis’s insistence, the samurai agrees to help smuggle a Manchu princess to Mexico. But little does he know that he’s really been dragged into an epic struggle for power. As they become embroiled in the deadly politics of New Spain, Kitazume uses his lethal skills to save his friends—and to find redemption. Meanwhile, Luis secretly works as a member of the legendary...