BOOKTOUR SPOTLIGHT – Guns and Almond Milk by Mustafa Marwan.

Today I am on the tour for Guns and Almond Milk by Mustafa Marwan, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

I have to be completely honest and admit that I’ve messed up, I had the date for this tour in my diary as March so I can only apologise to the author, publisher and everyone involved that I haven’t had chance to finish it yet!

Pages: 240

Synopsis:An adrenaline-fueled journey into war-torn Yemen, this novel is the perfect read for fans of passionate, fast-paced fiction.

 

Luke Larson, a British Egyptian doctor, runs from his problematic past in the UK and becomes a war surgeon. When he is taken hostage by Western security contractors in a besieged hospital in Yemen, he realizes that after spending years saving the lives of others, he needs to face the demons of his past in order to save his own.

 

Guns and Almond Milk is a study of identity, war and redemption.

 

It is The Sympathizer mixed with M.A.S.H by the way of Ramy.

Born to Egyptian parents and raised as a first-generation British Muslim, Luke Larson struggles to be from two worlds at the same time.

 

He is working in a humanitarian mission in Aden, at the height of the Yemeni conflict. Max Gorsky, Luke’s new patient, is a security contractor working for the government forces. Rebel forces have taken over the city, and Max’s team is now taking refuge in the city’s hospital, in preparation for their final stand. Luke and his team find themselves caught in a deadly clash between the ruthless rebel group and the desperate security contractors.

At the same time, Max and Luke need to settle debts from their shared past in the UK where they joined forces in fencing a multi-million-dollar stolen artifact operation that went wrong.

 

Guns and Almond Milk is a fast-paced story of love, murder, and thrill that provides readers with a fresh perspective on humanitarian work, religion, assimilation, and Middle Eastern politics.

Initial Thoughts: you can feel the unease of this story coming through the pages, none of the characters really know wherever they’re coming or going, although all of them are trying their best with the limited resources they have, we haven’t gotten into the nitty gritty of the story yet, but Luke is reliant on painkillers, so I know that something big must’ve happened in his past to make him that way. I love Luke as a character, his vulnerability is really coming through which as weird as it sounds is nice to see in a male main character!

I’m excited to carry on I have a feeling I’m really going to love it.

About The Author:

Mustafa Marwan is an Egyptian writer, aid worker, and trainer with over a decade of experience in more than a dozen conflict zones around the world. His debut novel, Guns and Almond Milk, a 2021 Page Turner Awards Finalist, is set in Yemen and the United Kingdom, where he has lived and worked. Mustafa has a Bachelor’s in Pharmacy and a Master’s in Public Health and has lectured and consulted on topics such as management and leadership, health and social care. He has also facilitated intercultural dialogue programs in several countries.

Mustafa currently resides in Bangkok, Thailand.