The Distance Between Us - by Renato Cisneros (Paperback)

About the Book

A son looks back on the family history that shaped him and led to his father's leading role in a brutal dictatorship.

Book Synopsis

'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.

Review Quotes

English PEN Translates Award

"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

"Uncompromising.... a rousing story of migration and identity." --Irish Times

"Cisneros shows great skill in interweaving two apparently independent stories, intelligently connecting them in an almost imperceptible manner at first, until one supports itself on the other like the backbone of the novel." --El Mundo

"Who is able to recount and connect, on the basis of a chance encounter between two Peruvians in a taxi in Madrid, the uprooting of the 21st century and its migrations and the enduring horrors of the 20th century? Only the talent and the voice of an exceptional author like Renato Cisneros." --El País

"Written with narrative dexterity and a rhythm that never falters." --Claudia Piñeiro, author of ELENA KNOWS

"A novel of extraordinary complexity, with dazzling prose, where the characters encounter history, the past and themselves." --El Mundo

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About the Author

Renato Cisneros (Lima, 1976) is a well-known journalist, broadcaster and writer from Peru now living in Madrid. Having published a number of books of poetry and two novels, in 2015 he stepped back from his media career to fully concentrate on his writing. The Distance Between Us (Charco Press, 2018) sold over 35,000 copies in Peru alone and has been lauded in the Peruvian and international press. It was shortlisted for the Mario Vargas Llosa Biannual Award, longlisted for the Prix Médicis (2017) and was the winner of the Prix Transfuge du Meilleur Roman Hispanique (2017). Its prequel, You Shall Leave Your Land (Charco, 2023) was also a bestseller in Spain and Latin America. The World We Saw Burning, runner-up for the prestigious Alfaguara Prize (2023) is his most recent novel.

Fionn Petch is a Scottish-born translator working from Spanish, Italian and French into English. He lived in Mexico City for 12 years, where he completed a PhD in Philosophy at the UNAM. His translations of Latin American literature for Charco Press have been widely acclaimed. Fireflies by Luis Sagasti was shortlisted for the Translators' Association First Translation Award 2018. The Distance Between Us by Renato Cisneros received an English PEN Award in 2018. A Musical Offering, also by Luis Sagasti, was shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2021 and won the Society of Authors Premio Valle Inclán 2021 for best translation from Spanish. He now lives in Berlin.