Broken Halo

BROKEN HALO is an action-packed, fast-moving novel, set in Thailand. Two tales are juxtaposed alongside one another. The book is separated in two parts, and there are two time settings as well. Ploy, now a young woman, looks back at her dramatic experiences as a thirteen year old, which took place in the late 1980's. Her brother, Kaeng's adventures happened just a few years ago, when he was seventeen years old. Although they grew up in the same house, raised by the same parents, Kaeng was just a little boy when his two sisters, Ploy and Joy, were forced to leave home to face a life of child prostitution. The two main characters speak for themselves in their own words. This creates a simplistic style for the reader to follow, as the protagonists use a naïve, inexperienced and, at times, a blunt way of observing and reacting to the harsh situations that Life has dealt them. This novel is graphic in its raw portrayal of the sinister side of Thai life. We witness the maturing and hardening of these rural teenagers, who are given such little choice and who are constantly battling to survive. Their instincts are often unsympathetic, their actions cold-blooded. The reader is never asked to empathize, but only to observe and expect the unexpected.