The Distance Between Us

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 and 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. Winner of the Prix Transfuge du Meilleur Roman de Littérature Hispanique 2017, finalist for the Vargas Llosa Biannual Award and longlisted for the Prix Médicis Étranger 2017, 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.’ Thierry Clermont, Le Figaro

‘This is an impressive book. In writing it the author demonstrates great talent, as well as great courage.’ Mario Vargas Llosa

‘No one that reads this book will be able to look at their family in the same way again.’ Gabriela Wiener

‘An extraordinary family story... Renato Cisneros delivers here the captivating narrative of a strange and disturbing filiation. A loving and lucid puzzle.’ Le Monde (France)