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.
RIGHTS SOLD TO
France - Editorial Grasset et Fasquelle
Germany - Editorial Luchterhand
Italy - Editorial Adelphi
Norway - Editorial Aschehoug
United States - Editorial Arcade
United Kingdom - Editorial Harvill
Greece - Editorial 
Brazil - Editorial 
Portugal - Editorial 