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Distant Palaces
Distant Palaces
Jan 9, 2026 7:07 AM

Author:Abilio Estévez

Distant Palaces

Abilio Estévez conjures up the melancholy beauty of contemporary Havana with passion and eloquence in this story about a trio of misfits.

When Victorio learns that his home is about to be demolished he leaves his job, burns his possessions and takes to the streets. Wandering the city, he meets two people who change his life: Salma, a young prostitute, and Don Fuco, an enigmatic old man who performs as a clown. In the ruins of an old theatre, Don Fuco initiates his new friends into the secrets of poetry and theatre, bringing beauty, magic and exuberance into the pinched lives of Havana's citizens.

Distant Palaces is a novel about human resilience and joy in the face of crushing odds. It confirms Abilio Estévez as one of Latin America's most talented and inventive novelists.

Reviews

Estévez never falters in this story of the dogged pursuit of happiness in a city loved and hated in equal measure by its inhabitants

—— Metro

Possibly the most outstanding novel that Latin American literature has produced since the Sixties

—— Abc

A novel that defends beauty as the soul of reason, dignity and happiness

—— El Pais

An exuberant novel... the lost dreams of a battered, once beautiful city have a tangible presence

—— Financial Times

Fowles is an artist of great imaginative power

—— Sunday Times

These extraordinary diaries... should help bring about his richly deserved resuscitation

—— Spectator
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