Golden legend

A 10th century saga narrates the arrival of a Viking castaway to the Mayan cities. He is accepted as an avatar of the God Kukulkan and marries a Maya Princess A genetic thread links those misty characters with a young Mexican archaeologist and through her with the members of an expedition set to find El Gran Paititi, legendary lost city of the Incas. Myths about lost civilizations are recurrent in all cultures because they exert an irresistible romantic attraction on the human soul. The search unfolds first in the Amazonian jungle between Peru and Brazil and in the forests of Peruvian highlands afterwards. The expedition has attracted the attention of dangerous people led by a former Soviet intelligence officer who are looking for Paititi by its riches to put them at the service of a world power restoration project. Finally, a strange millennial group of alleged descendants of the Incas intends to expel all foreigners who pollute their sacred site which they seek to preserve for the day of the resurrection of the vast Empire. All these elements interact in the novel, creating a climate of sustained suspense and anxiety until the final climax.