The Nazarenes. A Historical Novel (Modern Renderings)

Guatemala, 1655. Beneath the rigid order of colonial society, powerful families contend for influence, private passions become instruments of destruction, and a mysterious brotherhood moves through the city under the guise of penitence.

At the centre of the conflict stands Don Rodrigo de Arias Maldonado: young, celebrated, fearless, and dangerously entangled in a world of forbidden love, political intrigue, vengeance, and betrayal. Around him, ambition corrupts the powerful, loyalty is tested, and long-buried crimes begin to force their way into the light.

Blending documented history with romance, conspiracy, supernatural legend, and psychological drama, The Nazarenes recreates seventeenth-century Guatemala as a society governed by honour, faith, violence, and inherited hatred. José Milla's novel is both a sweeping historical narrative and a dark study of desire, self-deception, and the price of power.