Colombiano

Book excerpt: Blending fact and fiction, Colombiano is a powerful and heart-rending story of revenge and war, set in Colombia. For four years Rusty Young, author of the international bestseller Marching Powder, worked secretly for the US government in Colombia. During this time he was shocked by the stories of child soldiers he encountered. He vowed that one day he would turn their tales into a book and let their voices be heard. * In Colombia you have to pick a side. Or one will be picked for you . . . All Pedro Gutiérrez cares about is fishing, playing pool and his girlfriend Camila's promise to sleep with him on his sixteenth birthday. But his life is ripped apart when Guerrilla soldiers callously execute his father in front of him, and he and his mother are banished from their farm. Swearing vengeance against the five men responsible, Pedro, with his best friend Palillo, joins an illegal Paramilitary group, where he is trained to fight, kill and crush any sign of weakness. But as he descends into a world of unspeakable violence, Pedro must decide how far he is willing to go. Can he stop himself before he becomes just as ruthless as those he is hunting? Or will his dark obsession cost him all he loves? From innocent teenage love to barbaric torture . . . from cruel despots to cocaine traficantes . . . from seedy drug markets to brutal battlefields . . . Colombiano is a blockbuster revenge thriller and an electrifying come-of-age story.