Renato Cisneros for The World We Saw Burning

"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

"Cisneros is a phenomenon in Latin America today." ~ El País

Renato Cisneros is a well-known journalist, broadcaster and writer. The Distance Between Us 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 and was the winner of the Prix Transfuge du Meilleur Roman Hispanique. Its prequel, You Shall Leave Your Land was also a bestseller in Spain and Latin America.

He joins us for his newly translated novel, The World We Saw Burning, runner-up for the prestigious Alfaguara Prize.

A Peruvian journalist returning to his home in Madrid, determined to rebuild his life after a divorce, falls into conversation with his taxi driver, who he discovers is a compatriot. Decades earlier, another Peruvian, Matías Giurato Roeder, leaves his country for the United States and experiences the shock of migration, followed by the horrors of World War II when he signs up as a pilot in the US Air Force. Yet his own family origins lie in the Axis countries, and some of his relatives are still there...

Based on real events that transport the reader to the vertigo and rawness of aerial warfare, The World We Saw Burning is both a striking account of war and a reflection on identity and uprootedness in a time when everything seems on the verge of exploding or disappearing forever.