How the Mighty Inca Fell
Ronald Wright’s novel chronicles disease, butchery and betrayal in Peru. December 2015
It is known as el Cuarto del Rescate, or the Ransom Chamber, and it is located in Cajamarca, a green and pleasant city perched high amid the cloud-draped Andes of northern Peru—a town with a history.
In the early 16th Century, an Inca prince named Atawallpa promised to fill the room in question with ornaments of…