FATHER OF ONE
Jani Anttola
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GENRE: war novel/literary fiction
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BLURB:
Maka,
a young Bosnian soldier, has survived three years under siege. When the enemy
forces launch their final attack on his hometown, he must escape to the hills.
But traversing the vast woods is a task against all odds: to stay alive, and to
find his infant son and his wife, he is soon forced to make a desperate move.
Set
against the harrowing background of raging guerrilla warfare and the genocide
in Srebrenica, Father of One is, at heart, a story of deep humanity, compassion
and love. It is the account of one man’s desire to reunite his family,
separated by war, and of bonds unbroken by trauma, sustained by loyalty and
tenacity. Writing in a voice that rings with clarity and authenticity, Jani
Anttola lays open a dark moment in Europe’s recent history.
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Excerpt:
The old man they called Dedo died in September after a
two-day storm. The wind blew from the south, bringing sea clouds, grey and
ragged like used steel wool, that poured down on the valley and the gusts drove
rain against the window planks, making them wet and dripping, with pooling
water on the floor of the cell. Outside the camp the trees bent in the heavy
wind and the hayfields were flat in the rain. It was a summer storm but it
wasn’t warm: the police stayed holed up in their house and grey smoke puffed
from the stovepipe and was ripped away flatly in the wind. The cops had reduced
their perimeter to a few that huddled in the far corners. In their olive-green
ponchos the guards looked like some strange, dark-glistening mushrooms behind
the rain. Then, after the storm broke, the drizzle continued for a day and the
hills were deep green and misty, and the rusty old silos of the batching
factory stood out brightly in their crumbling yellow paint. There were pools of
water on the paths between the barracks and tree branches blown across the yard
and everything was washed out, fresh and silent.
That afternoon they were corralled into the third barrack.
The hundreds of inmates stood waiting, packed in the hall now, happily
surprised by the announcement of an additional tea portion. The previous police
crew had repurposed the building as a prison canteen. On the low counter the
inmates had built, a gas stove was alight. On its grate sat a fifty-litre,
boiling aluminium kettle. Maka stood behind the cauldron with another inmate, a
ladle in hand, feeling the heat from the little blue flames that flickered
underneath.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Jani
Anttola is a Finnish novelist and a medical doctor. In the 1990s he served in
Rwanda with the French military and fought in Bosnia as a soldier of the
Bosnian army. His works have been published in the UK and Finland. He has spent
most of his adult life abroad, working in Africa, the Middle East and the
Asia-Pacific.
Author
website: https://www.jani-anttola.com/
Buy
links
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Father-One-Jani-Anttola/dp/1915603986
https://www.amazon.com/Father-of-One/dp/1915603986
https://bookguild.co.uk/bookshop/historical/father-of-one/
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GIVEAWAY
Jani
Anttola will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thank you for featuring FATHER OF ONE today.
ReplyDeleteI liked the excerpt.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great book.
ReplyDelete