The Distance Between Us
Renato Cisneros author Fionn Petch translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Charco Press
Published:9th Aug '18
Should be back in stock very soon
‘This is an impressive book. In writing it the author demonstrates great talent, as well as great courage.’ —Mario Vargas Llosa
If I succeed in understanding who he was before I was born, perhaps I will be able to understand who I am now that he is dead…In this sprawling family saga stretching across Latin America, a son embarks on a journey to understand his complex relationship with his father and how it shaped the man he is today. Recalling Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude and Isabel Allende’s House of the Spirits , the renowned journalist and writer Renato Cisneros probes deep into his own family history to try to come to terms with his father, General Luis Federico ‘The Gaucho’ Cisneros, a leading, controversial figure in the oppressive military regime that held power in Peru during the 1970s and 1980s, a tortuous period marked by state-sanctioned terrorism and the rise of the Shining Path.Selling over 35,000 copies in Peru alone, The Distance Between Us is at once excruciating in its honesty and deeply moving in its universal relevance. Selected for a slew of international prizes, it is now available in English for the first time.
"This is a book to set alongside Philip Roth’s Patrimony, Héctor Abad’s Oblivion, Paul Auster’s The Invention of Solitude, Martin Amis’s Experience, Albert Camus’ The First Man, and of course Kafka’s Letter to His Father." —Le Figaro Littéraire
"An extraordinary family story... Renato Cisneros delivers here the captivating narrative of a strange and disturbing filiation. A loving and lucid puzzle." —Le Monde
"Cisneros is a phenomenon in Latin America today." —El País
"The Distance Between Us goes far and appeals to the reader exactly because there is so little distance between what is written and what was lived."" —Alberto Fuguet , author of BAD VIBES
"Just as a father is never prepared to bury his son, a son is never prepared to dig up his father”(...) It is within this tension that this magnificent novel lies, full of drama and suspense from the very first page."" —Edmundo Paz Soldán , author of TURING'S DELIRIUM and NORTE
"The Distance Between Us is the story of a villain told from love. It dwells in the humanity hidden behind the themes left by war. It also narrates that other war: the one which all of us wage against our parents to become the persons we are."" —Santiago Roncagliolo , author of RED APRIL
"No one that reads this book will be able to look at their family in the same way again."" —Gabriela Wiener , author of SEXOGRAPHIES and NINE MOONS
"This is an impressive book. In writing it the author demonstrates great talent, as well as great courage."" —Mario Vargas Llosa , author of THE TIME OF THE HERO and CONVERSATION IN THE CATHEDRAL
"People should read this novel to learn more about themselves."" —Jorge Edwards , author of PERSONA NON GRATA
"A book so intelligent and moving, you wish it would never end." —Libération
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Praise for Renato Cisneros
"This thorough account of a powerful family will intrigue fans of Latin American literature." —Publishers Weekly
"An absorbing exploration of one family's clandestine roots and inherited lies. (4 stars)" —The Wee Review
"A relentless search by a writer to discover his family secrets." —Morning Star
"Excellent and thought provoking." —You Shall Leave Your Land
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ISBN: 9781999859312
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
357 pages