Book excerpt: Translated into English, the novel Morsamor is set in 1521. Morsamor is a young Spaniard whose name is the combination of the Latin words for Death and Love. He is accompanied by a lay brother serving him as a squire, and who is skilled with many attributes that facilitate Morsamor's successes. They sail from Lisbon to circumnavigate the world by going east. The bulk of the novel is the story of their many adventures. Later, Morsamor wakes back in the monastery an old man nearing death, wondering if his dreams were real or imagined, and with the desire to cleanse his soul.