You Shall Leave Your Land

Author: Cisneros, Renato, Petch, Fionn

Peru

Published on 31 January 2023 by Charco Press in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 314 pages, No
196 x 132 x 26 | 372g

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.