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Fiction Literary

Arrows

by (author) Luisa Maria Celis

Publisher
Libros Libertad
Initial publish date
Mar 2009
Category
Literary
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780981073521
    Publish Date
    Mar 2009
    List Price
    $19.95

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Description

How does a monk raised in a monastery deal with naked women and the atrocities of war? In 1566, Spain expands its dominion over the newly discovered territories not yet widely known as America. The many native nations of this new land pose no threat to Spain's superiority, despite the ferocity of their resistance. Conquistadors rule – natives are slaughtered and enslaved. Only the Church denounces the horror. The missionaries are the natives' only hope. Friar Salvador Cepeda is a determined, devout and virgin Franciscan monk. He is sent across the ocean to join a historical conquest expedition to the lands of the recalcitrant Carib Indians of the valley of Caracas in the Province of Venezuela, and the cruelty, lust and avarice of the Conquest shake his faith to its foundations. When beautiful native Apacuana enters his life and takes him into the stronghold of the most feared chief, Guacaipuro, Salvador discovers a native society he never imagined, a God he never knew and a passion he cannot condemn. Torn between what he has always believed and his new insight of life Salvador must find a new way to confirm his faith or else become an apostate.

About the author

Luisa Maria Celis was born in Caracas, Venezuela. She lived in Germany and emigrated from Venezuela to Canada eight years ago where she studied English, Art and History courses at BCOU. Property Manager by profession and autodidact in most things, she started writing some fifteen years ago and has produced a self-published romance Dos Zafiros y un Rubi (2001), in Spanish, and poems, children's stories in both English and Spanish. Arrows is the first of a series of three historical novels that tell the story of an epoch that saw the birth of the Caribbean.

Luisa Maria Celis' profile page

Excerpt: Arrows (by (author) Luisa Maria Celis)

My body seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, but I finally managed to scramble to my feet and only then felt the gaping cuts and bruises. I realized my right eye was almost swollen shut and had to raise my chin in order to see. The air quickly filled with weeping and wailing, as the people returned and gathered. The smell of congealing blood hung like a miasma. I knelt beside her in silence. She raised her head slowly becoming aware of my presence; her eyes–puffy with crying–grew wider as she recognized me. Next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the ground and she was thrashing me. Her nails were scratching deep in my neck; she slapped me and spit me on the face, screaming her pain and hate. Kneeling astride me, she pounded my chest until she grew tired and only wept, sobbing so heartbreakingly that I felt my own tears running freely. I let her. She had all the right in the world to hate me. I hated me, too.

Editorial Reviews

I am astonished by Arrows. It is a quintessential novel for all the Americas – north, central and south – from the top of Canada to the bottom of Chile.

Alan Twigg