"A deeply-imagined and beautifully-written blend of travelogue, memorial, and fantastical history amid an unfolding mystery of what really happened to the tale-teller’s comrades. A story to savor."

— Kate Elliott, author of The Witch Roads

"An addictive read. Story by story, a fascinating world is revealed, at times heartbreaking, comic, or terrifying, but always compassionate and original. A fantasy has never felt so real, its people so true."

— Sue Burke, author of Semiosis

"Álbaro Ceynos, the lone survivor of a colossal jaguar’s predation upon the Presidio of Lost Souls, narrates this brilliant mosaic novel of his experiences as he delivers the cremated remains of his eighty-plus comrades to their families. Schultz wraps each of Álbaro’s vignettes in sublime prose while allowing the truth of the events to leak out, providing the reader a “pot of diadems” that slowly and artfully coalesce to reveal what befell both Ceynos and the other members of his battalion. Like Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams, what at first appear to be random episodes are, rather, perfectly pitched personal histories that fit together like jigsaw puzzle pieces. But here we’re in a 10th century world where the fantasy elements assemble so quietly you might miss them. Most highly recommended."

— Gregory Frost, author of Rhymer and Shadowbridge

"The Book of the Jaguar is literary magic, weaving together the crushing weight of colonial history, the pure inventiveness of Victor Ladis Schultz’s fantastical world, and the full emotional range of grief and the life that continues despite it all. This debut is a truly revolutionary work of memory and imagination."

— Michael Welch, editor of On an Inland Sea

Astonishing and strange, sublime little gems both surreal and somehow perfectly true! The Book of the Jaguar has all the humor and introspection of Nicholson Baker, and the lightness when confronting the absurd of Italo Calvino. Like if the traveller in Invisible Cities had a name and drove a wagon full of ashes, memories, and lies into an imagined colonial Mexico. The language was stunning, luring me into these gorgeous gems of Álbaro’s arrival to each bereaved family, which surprised me every time. The fantasy only heightens the excavation of the human soul. Victor Ladis Schultz has given us a gift in Álbaro, a mirror for us all.

— Brenda Peynado, author of Time's Agent, winner of the 2025 Philip K. Dick Award

Book launch at Worldcon; events, readings, and signings around Chicago; various interviews online; podcast appearances; social media promo