Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. The novel weaves together a contemporary road trip, 19th-century historical narratives, and fragmented essays. How did this non-linear structure affect your reading experience? Did you find it engaging or challenging, and why?

2. What was your overall emotional reaction to the book’s ending? Did it leave you with a sense of hope, despair, or something else entirely?

3. The book’s depiction of the American Southwest is unflinchingly brutal. How did you feel Enrigue’s portrayal of violence compared to other works that explore this historical landscape, such as Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian (1985)?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. The narrator struggles with his identity as a Mexican expatriate applying for other citizenships, feeling like he belongs to a country “erased from the maps” (12). Have you ever had an experience with bureaucracy or travel that made you question your own sense of national or personal identity?

2. Camila Ezguerra undergoes a deep and violent transformation, ultimately choosing a new life with the Apaches. Can you think of a time in your life when you had to adapt to a completely new environment or culture? What did that experience teach you about your own resilience and capacity for change?

3. For the narrator, the family road trip is a pilgrimage to connect with a history that haunts the land. What places, if any, hold a deep personal or family history for you? How does visiting them shape your understanding of the past?

4. The act of remembering and passing down stories is central to the novel, especially for the narrator and his children. What stories, figures, or traditions are considered important in your own family or community, and what role do they play in shaping your identity?

5. Zuloaga often justifies his actions through his duty as an officer of the Mexican Republic. Think about a time you’ve witnessed or experienced a conflict between personal values and professional or social obligations. How did you navigate these tensions?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. Enrigue explores the idea of names and borders as tools of colonialism, used to control and erase Indigenous peoples. Where do you see similar processes of renaming, redrawing maps, or redefining identities to assert power in the world today?

2. The narrator is critical of the sanitized, mythologized version of history presented at tourist sites like Tombstone. What other historical events or figures can you think of whose stories have been simplified in popular culture? Why do you think societies create these kinds of myths?

3. The novel argues that both the United States and Mexico were built on the “systematic extermination” of Indigenous populations. In what ways does this perspective challenge the national founding stories you may have learned?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. How does the autofictional presence of the narrator shape your understanding of the historical events? What does his personal, often self-deprecating, commentary add that a more traditional historical narrative might lack?

2. The phrase “that is all,” from Geronimo’s surrender statement, appears as a recurring motif. What do you think this phrase signifies each time it is used? How does its meaning shift from a personal declaration of defeat to a broader commentary on history?

3. Geronimo is portrayed in multiple ways: as a young apprentice warrior named Goyahkla, a legendary shaman, and a prisoner of war. How does this fractured portrait contribute to the novel’s themes of memory and historical myth-making?

4. Consider the many figures in Zuloaga’s diverse posse, such as the cross-dressing sharpshooter Elvira, the vengeful Yaqui twins, and the Apache-speaking dancing master El Márquez. What role do these unconventional characters play in illustrating the theme of fluid identity in the borderlands?

5. Contrast the symbolic role that horses play in the narrative against the modern forms of technology deployed in the novel, such as the telegraph. What does this contrast suggest about the role technology plays in colonialism and colonial resistance?

6. Enrigue blends historical fact with metafiction and personal reflection. How does this postmodern approach to a historical novel compare with a more traditional one, like Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall (2009)? What are the strengths or weaknesses of Enrigue’s style?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. Imagine you are curating a museum exhibit based on Now I Surrender. Which three objects or images would you select to represent the novel’s central ideas, and what would you write on the placards to explain their significance?

2. If you were to add another narrative timeline to the book, whose story would you tell? Would it be a character from the distant past, like an early Spanish colonist, or someone in the future dealing with the long-term legacy of these events?

3. Zuloaga’s posse is filled with memorable characters whose fates are not all fully detailed. Choose one, like Mauricio Corredor or Elvira, and imagine what happens to them after their part in the story concludes. What kind of life do you picture for them?