You Shall Leave Your Land
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- £7.99
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
The history of Peru unfolds in the lives of the descendants of seven children fathered by a Catholic priest and his longtime secret lover.
Renato Cisneros's great-great-grandmother Nicolasa bore seven children by her long-term secret love, who was also her priest, raising them alone in nineteenth century Peru. More than a century later, Renato, the descendent of that clandestine affair, struggles to wring information about his origins out of recalcitrant relatives, whose foibles match the adventures and dalliances of their ancestors. As buried secrets are brought into the light, the story of Nicolasa's progeny unfolds, bound up with key moments in the development of the Republic of Peru since its independence.
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In a prequel to The Distance Between Us, Cisneros continues in this dishy outing his Latin American family's history as he relates three earlier generations. As a child, Cisneros writes, Renato resisted his family, a disposition stemming from secrets kept around the "stubborn and doomed love" between his great-great-grandmother and the parish priest. The couple's nearly 50-year romance produced seven children, including Renato's great-grandfather Luis Benjamín Cisneros, a diplomat and poet. Luis has three children with the mistress of Peru's president, but he abandons everyone to move to France in 1859. He returns home for a political meeting, marries Cristina, 14, and returns to Europe with her, where she bears him seven children, including the narrator's grandfather, Fernán. Back in Peru in 1909, the young Fernán, a journalist, is sent to prison several times for political agitation, and eventually into exile in Argentina. There, Fernán lives a double life while fathering children with both his wife and his mistress. He has seven children with the latter, whom he eventually marries, including the narrator's father. Alongside the family drama, Cisneros has a sure hand in highlighting the turning points of Peru's long struggle for independence, with cameos from such political figures as Simon Bolívar and Napoleon III. This thorough account of a powerful family will intrigue fans of Latin American literature.
