Authors Website: www.philhalton.com
Genre: Literary / Historical / War
In 1978, the tension on the streets of Managua was electric. The whole city teetered on the edge of becoming a warzone.
The Somoza family held the people of Nicaragua in a stranglehold, stripping the country of everything of value and making beggars out of honest citizens. The only thing that kept them in power were the feared Guardia Nacional.
In order to survive, Paco eked out a living as a street musician, busking and playing university parties. His politics were those of someone never sure of where he would get his next meal. But when a violent government crackdown erupts on the streets, he’s forced to choose sides in order to survive.
Unexpectedly part of a fierce guerrilla war, what begins as a struggle for survival becomes something more. The heavy cost of the revolution becomes clearer with every battle fought, and every traitor executed. Paco must find the balance between fighting for a cause he increasingly comes to embody, and maintaining his humanity.
Every Arm Outstretched examines historical events through the lens of the human heart. How do we determine right and wrong when society itself has become corrupt? Do we owe our ultimate loyalty to our comrades or to our ideals? And can the end ever truly justify the means?
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Excerpt
CHAPTER
ONE
It wasn’t a prison, though some days it felt
like one. It shouldn’t have mattered to me, I suppose, what colours the walls
were, or that my room wasn’t much
bigger than my bed, or
that the timing of meals, and everything else, was strictly enforced. I
spent most of my time living inside my head, thinking of when I was young
and strong and alive. I knew that I should’ve been happy that there was a
roof over my head and that I never wondered when or if I would eat. But
death stalked the hallways. Some days I felt his breath on the back of
my neck, just as I had when I was in the mountains.
I put down the dog-eared
copy of Pedro Páramo that I had been reading, sliding an old
prayer card between the pages to mark my place. I maneuvered around the
open door of my single room and rolled myself down the hall with the
nicotine yellow walls. Most of the doors I passed had two neatly
written cards mounted on
them, each showing its residents’ names. At the top of each card, written in
block letters, was the resident’s former rank. I glanced in each doorway
as I passed until I reached the end of the ward,. I wasn’t sure what I
hoped to see beyond grey faces looking back at me.
It didn’t take long for
the orderly to see that I was at the doors, even though his attention was
on a small television showing a protest that filled the streets
somewhere. A young man in scrubs held the door open for me with one hand
while giving my wheelchair a helpful push over the lip at the threshold
with the other.
“Thank you,” I croaked,
without looking back. When my voice stuck in my throat, I realized that I
had not spoken for several days outside of my thoughts and dreams.
Author Bio
Phil Halton has worked in conflict zones around the world as an officer in the Canadian Army and as a security consultant. His debut novel, This Shall Be a House of Peace (Dundurn Press, 2019) received a rare starred review from Book List. He holds a Master’s Degree in Defence Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada, and a Graduate Certificate in Creative Writing from Humber College. He has two forthcoming books. "Blood Washing Blood: Afghanistan’s Hundred-Year War" is a history that will be published on 27 April, 2021. His next novel, "Every Army Outstretched," will launch on 16 October 2020.
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