In 1540, the grandest exploring expedition ever assembled in the Americas paraded north from the ruins of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, a glittering column of 2,000 men heading into the unknown. Their destination was El Norte Misterioso - present-day United States, where fabulous cities of gold were rumored to shine beyond the horizon. Two years later, survivors began stumbling back, half dead. Lost to poisoned arrows, brutal deserts, starvation, cold, desertion, and countless other hardships, 90% of those who left would never return. Pulitzer-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin says: "With vivid detail and infectious energy, Peter Stark is a uniquely gifted storyteller who makes history feel immediate and alive.” And from Hampton Sides: "More than two and a half centuries before Lewis and Clark embarked on their famous trek, another exploring party, less well-known today but in many ways more ambitious and consequential, headed into terra incognita to unlock the secrets of the American West. In Peter Stark’s fresh and dramatic telling, Coronado’s epic expedition comes alive in a narrative that deftly alternates between European and Indigenous perspectives, giving us a thoroughly modern take on one of history’s classic sagas of adventure and first contact." Peter Stark is author of Astoria: Astor and Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire, a PEN USA Literary Award finalist. A former correspondent for Outside magazine, Stark's writing has appeared in Smithsonian, The New Yorker, and the New York Times Magazine. His other books include Young Washington, a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize, and Gallop Toward the Sun.