S&S triumphs in seven-way auction for Schaefer's history of Latin America

Simon & Schuster (S&S) has won a seven-way auction for The Labyrinth: A New History of Latin America by Timo Schaefer. UK and Commonwealth rights were acquired by Kris Doyle, deputy publishing director of non-fiction, from Tom Killingbeck at A M Heath.

The book is an exploration of Latin America’s modernisation and the centuries of "colonial and racial domination" that came before. The publisher said: "To grapple with their region’s postcolonial condition, Latin American intellectuals have described the history of Latin America as a maze imprisoning the present and obscuring the path into a more just future. In this book, historian Timo Schaefer offers a fresh guide through that maze."

Schaefer said: "I have always wanted to read a popular history of Latin America that places the voices of women, peasants, slaves and other ordinary people at its centre, and eventually I found myself writing one. I’m absolutely chuffed to be working with Kris Doyle at Simon & Schuster in the UK and Lara Heimert at Basic Books in the US to make The Labyrinth a reality.

"Latin America is not only a major world region but also a crucible for modern history more widely—the scene of the modern world’s longest and deepest experiment with colonialism, and of the modern world’s greatest cycle of successful anti-colonial rebellion, too. I look forward to working with Lara and Kris to share this fascinating and illuminating history with readers on both sides of the Atlantic."

Doyle added: "This is thrilling, continent-sized history that illuminates how our modern world was made. The Labyrinth does not offer a turgid litany of facts and dates, but an extraordinary narrative that will sweep across centuries and give fresh perspectives on famous figures and the excitement of new discoveries about previously unknown or under-appreciated inhabitants of the region.

"Timo’s combination of storytelling verve, original research and big ideas will bring alive the history of Latin America for any reader, especially the unfamiliar one. The whole team at Simon & Schuster loved this proposal and we’ll be publishing it as a lead title in spring 2026 with as much flair as Timo has written it with."

Schaefer is a historian of Latin America whose first academic book, Liberalism as Utopia: The Rise and Fall of Legal Rule in Post-Colonial Mexico, 1820-1900 (Cambridge University Press), was awarded the Mexican best book prize (social sciences) from the Latin American Studies Association. He has taught at universities including the University of Oxford, and is currently lecturer in Latin American history at the University of Edinburgh.