The Nine Lives of Christopher Columbus

by Matthew Restall Narrated by Matthew Restall

Overview

A gifted historian presents a definitive book on Columbus-his life, his legacy, and the many controversies that outlived him.



Two thousand books have been written about Columbus, most of them spirited defenses or relentless attacks. Recently, the balance has shifted: the Genoese navigator, once considered a hero, is now blamed for bringing plunder and genocide to the Americas. In The Nine Lives of Christopher Columbus, historian Matthew Restall takes us beyond polemic, sifting through the evidence across nations, languages, and five centuries to explore the central questions of Columbiana. He demonstrates that we know a great deal about Columbus's life, and what we know shows that Columbus was not nearly as remarkable as many have assumed-or as he himself believed. But his afterlives are another story: Restall narrates the international contest over Columbus's bones and the dozens of regional and national claims on his birthplace (some turning him into a secret Jew), examines how he became an American hero and then a hero of Italian Americans, and more. The result is a kaleidoscopic account of a single man that becomes a new history of the modern world.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"[E]ntertaining and unpredictable…surprising and significant…The Nine Lives of Christopher Columbus offers some key interventions. One is to restore Columbus to his proper dimension…Restall is, amazingly, able to say something new and interesting about a figure for whom everything had seemingly been said already."— Andrés Reséndez New York Times Book Review

"Delightful…a kind of collage biography, spotlessly conducted by an authority who manages to master the vast Columbiana literature while still keeping an eye on TikTok for the latest Columbus memes. It's an oddly spellbinding performance, easily as involving as any more straightforward biography of the man could be."— Steve Donoghue Open Letters Review

"I thought there were too many books on Columbus until I read Matthew Restall’s—which has made me realize that formerly there were at least nine too few. He brings a fresh approach, an original touch, a lively eye, a delightful style, and a sense of humor to every subject he broaches. Innovation in Columbus studies is usually contrived, sensationalist, or otherwise unconvincing. Matthew Restall’s will have an impact and—I hope—change readers’ minds because it’s disciplined by common sense, erudition, commitment to objectivity and fairness, and, above all, scrupulous fidelity to the sources."— Felipe Fernández-Armesto, author of 1492: The Year Our World Began

"I found The Nine Lives of Christopher Columbus to be a marvelous fusion of ingenuity and scholarship, a kaleidoscope of the explorer’s provocative legacies."— Laurence Bergreen, author of Columbus: The Four Voyages

"In this compelling book, Matthew Restall comprehensively dismantles the myths surrounding Christopher Columbus while simultaneously revealing their power and importance for understanding his ever-changing legacy. A fascinating read for anyone seeking to understand how history is made, contested, and remembered."— Caroline Dodds Pennock, author of On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe

Kirkus Reviews

2025-08-14
A fluent investigation into the “manufactured mysteries” surrounding the famous—and infamous—navigator.

As historian Restall notes, Christopher Columbus’ name is all over the map, with “some six thousand instances across every continental state” in the U.S. and dozens of other places claiming him as their native son. He is supposed to be a man of mystery, of shrouded origins, who divined that the earth was not flat and that sailing west across the Atlantic would not result in dropping off the edge of the planet. That gift of insight is all nonsense, Restall writes, since the flat Earth theory (never mind its current believers) had long before been disproven and the ocean currents were fairly well known. Further, Restall makes an airtight case for Columbus’ Genoese origin, disproving the claims of later scholars that he was Spanish to begin with, born to become one of the “merchant mariners [who] tied together the economies of northern Europe and the Mediterranean” and driven to explore not for its own sake but in the interest of securing new markets. “Columbus’s thinking was that of an uneducated but self-­taught late-medieval man,” illiterate into his 20s, the author writes. Columbus was also a self-inventor, as Restall demonstrates while examining the several guises Columbus wore, from likely participant in the African slave trade to busy self-promoter, selling his scheme to travel across the ocean first to Portugal, unsuccessfully, before landing the patronage of the Castilian court. Restall doesn’t exactly defend Columbus from the current view that he was an agent of genocide, though his own take is tempered: “Columbus was an instrument of empire, not its creator but a tool at its early modern dawn; he was thus easily misappropriated in service of modern ideologies.”

An intriguing portrait of a man who, while surely no innocent, has been mythologized for centuries since his death.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940195103026
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	10/07/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged

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