This extraordinary tale from the mind of an Andean writer uses the novel form to re-imagine events which led to the creation of the legend of the mythical founding father of Inca culture, Manco Ccapaq.
Under the title THE MESSAGE OF THE APUS we present here in a single volume a work originally published as a trilogy. It is a fascinating narrative which blends history, myth and the imagination to create a magical world where the Apus dwell - human beings of flesh and blood who live isolated from the world where the rest of humanity lives its own version of civilization.
The author gives the Apus - the sacred mountain gods of the people of the Andes - human form and endows them with great wisdom which they exercise from their dwelling place within an enormous mountain that rises up from the heart of Peru's Amazon forests.
THE MESSAGE OF THE APUS speaks to us of the imminent collapse of the system by which all humanity currently lives and of the need to change our attitudes and practices in the face of coming disaster. It speaks too of the mysteries of creation and the blend of myth and fact which informs our knowledge of the history of the Andes.

RUBÉN IWAKI ORDÓÑEZ was born in 1944 in the district of Kosñipata, at the foot of the spectacular natural balcony overlooking the Amazon basin at Tres Cruces, in Peru's Cuzco region. His parents farmed the Patria estate, and Rubén spent his infancy in that paradisiacal land. From the age of nine he was educated in the city of Cuzco. He studied anthropology at the city's university before abandoning his studies to follow the dictates of his enquiring mind, which led him to his own research into the origins of Andean civilization. In 1969 he crossed the Andes on foot, walking for thirty-six days. In 1980, five years after the publication of his first book (Operation Paititi), he led an expedition into the Amazon forest beyond the Pongo de Mainike, known as “the cathedral of the Amazon”.
He now lives in Cuzco, which he describes as his true dwelling place, where he continues to write.