Meet Andrew Rowen

Andrew Rowen’s novels retell the history of the encounters between European and Taíno peoples in the Caribbean 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 contacts in 1492 and was praised for historical accuracy. Columbus and Caonabó: 1493–1498 Retold (2021) relates the bitter war between Columbus and Chief Caonabó during the period of Columbus’s second voyage and was praised for scholarship. His third book, Isabel, Anacaona & Columbus’s Demise: 1498–1502 Retold, depicts the least studied years of Española’s brutal conquest and will be released on November 10, 2025.

Andrew is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and Harvard Law School and has long been interested in the roots of religious intolerance.