PINK SKY DREAMS
a novel
by Gregory Olivier
a novel
by Gregory Olivier
Description
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Written in the third-person present, we follow part of a young man’s life. Set in the eighties, Allan Churchill (protagonist), a young white teenager flees from apartheid in South Africa (and military conscription) to chase his dream – to be a professional musician in Europe. Although he is granted political asylum in Holland, he is drawn into Amsterdam’s criminal world and learns some of life’s harder lessons.
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Sample text
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Two excerpts from Pink Sky Dreams by Gregory Olivier © 2024
Allan has reached the point of no return. He has gambled with his life before and soon he will gamble with his life again. Sometimes the thought of failure flits through his mind, but he knows that it is better to ignore the abyss and the possibility of falling into it—the belief that he can determine his fate by his own willpower keeps him strong.... Bangkok’s outdated drainage system has a particular stench. If you closed your eyes, you would know which city you were in simply by the smell. Even though the odour invades Allan’s nostrils, he ignores it and eats his fried rice with gusto (always a safe bet when eating from street vendors). He decides to have a beer outside the guesthouse before retiring for the night. Today has been an especially long day for him: the 12-hour bus trip down from Chiang Mai has worn him out. After the meal, he sits at a small concrete table designed for a suburban garden but it fits perfectly on the sidewalk of Samsen Road. The three Iranian refugees from the guesthouse sit with him while he drinks his large bottle of Singha beer. They do not drink alcohol because they observe the precepts of their religion. It becomes an interesting evening as Allan listens to their account of how the Ayatollah Khomeini swooped into power some years ago and how they had only just escaped from Iran with their lives. Allan has some refugee stories of his own. He explains that only two years ago he fled from South Africa and applied for political asylum in Holland. He never had any desire whatsoever to go to the South African army and apartheid runs against every tiny grain of moral fibre that he has. They talk into the night and describe the circumstances that have displaced them from their homelands. And it is mutually agreed that it is far better to run away than to stay in one’s own country and be thrown in jail, or be executed. The Iranians go to great lengths pantomiming a beheading to add weight to their argument. Alan agrees in turn, wholeheartedly so, that beheading is definitely not cool and then goes up to his room. That night he sleeps soundly, untroubled by the sound of traffic that continues until five in the morning. Three uneventful days pass and the day of departure draws close. On the fourth morning in Bangkok, when Allan awakes, he walks down the solitary flight of stairs…. |