Translation Rights TQE / The Distant Palaces

Abilio Estévez broke into the field of Spanish letters in 1997 with Tuyo es el reino (Yours is the Kingdom), a first novel that quickly received the recognition of the critics, conquered a notable number of readers, and has been translated into twelve languages.  It is with enormous satisfaction that we now announce Los palacios distantes (The Distant Palaces), a novel in which Estévez changes his previous register and explores new narrative paths.

In Havana, shortly before the arrival of 2001.  A man in his forties named Victorio is evicted from his residence just a few days before the building crumbles to the ground.  He misses having his own space and lacks the most essential necessities in life, so he wanders along the city, defeated and astray, until he meets Salma, a young jinetera hounded by a beautiful and merciless procuress.  They both arrive at the ruins of an old abandoned theatre, looking for refuge, and are taken in by an eccentric and enigmatic character, and old acrobat and clown who they have seen perform on the streets and in parks without any sense of shame.  Victorio and Salma discover that perhaps that old theatre is the «distant palace» that was reserved for them, and that the mission which priest of laughter wants to instil in them is not as extravagant as they once thought, since he is set on liberating his friends from exhaustion and boredom by using surprise and the coarse putting into scene of beauty.

Abilio Estévez was born in Havana in 1954 and currently lives in Barcelona. He has a degree in Hispanic Literature and Languages and also studied Philosophy in his native city. He has written two magnificent critically-acclaimed novels, Tuyo es el reino (Thine Is the Kingdom) -winner of the Cuban Critics Prize in 1999 and of the Best Foreign Book Award in France in 2000- and Los palacios distantes (The Distant Palaces) selected by the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia as the Book of the Year in 2004. Both novels have been translated into more than ten languages. He is also the author of a book of short stories, El horizonte y otros regresos (The Horizon and Other Ways Back) –Luis Cernuda Prize in 1986–, of the poetic prose Manual de tentaciones (Temptation Manual) –Cuban Critics Prize in 1987–, and of different plays, such as the monologues Ceremonias para actores desesperados (Ceremonies for Desperate Actors).