Meet Andrew Rowen

Andrew Rowen’s novels retell the history of the encounters between Europeans and the Caribbean’s Taíno peoples from a bicultural perspective, based on primary sources, anthropological studies, and visits to sites where Columbus and Taíno chieftains lived, met, and fought. Encounters Unforeseen: 1492 Retold (2017) portrays the life stories of the chieftains and Columbus from youth through their first encounters in 1492 and was praised for historical accuracy. Columbus and Caonabó: 1493–1498 Retold (2021) relates the bitter conflict and war between Columbus and Chief Caonabó during the period of Columbus’s second voyage and was praised for scholarship.

Andrew is completing a third novel to retell the history from 1498 to 1502. He is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and Harvard Law School and has long been interested in the roots of religious intolerance.