Junta Quotes

“And yet, we’re all exiles, in our own way, Clarence thought. Exiles running away from something or someone; people who have become pariahs simply because they’re a minority, lost in the multitude, like a grain in a rice field.”
― MiddleRoad Publishers, Junta: a novel set in the Caribbean

“the government was in danger of being overthrown. If it had succeeded, it would have earned the dubious distinction of being the very first armed takeover of an elected government in an ex-British colony in the West Indies.”
― MiddleRoad Publishers, Junta: a novel set in the Caribbean

“Everyone knew the government's philosophy in problem solving after that incident: If you couldn't see it, the problem didn't exist”
― Ken Puddicombe, Junta: a novel set in the Caribbean

“Then, there was the stench arising on hot, sweltering days and drifting over the fence with the northerly trade winds, like a cloud of pestilence; a putrid, overwhelming miasma creeping through doors and windows.”
― MiddleRoad Publishers, Junta: a novel set in the Caribbean

“This was all rattled off without any reference to his notes. Simboo was like that, a walking compendium of facts and figures, one who retained everything about world events.”
― MiddleRoad Publishers, Junta: a novel set in the Caribbean

“would stand at the door, waiting, watching, poised to make a hasty retreat if the need arose, like a reporter investigating a partly collapsed building, waiting outside to see if further disaster was in the making.”
― MiddleRoad Publishers, Junta: a novel set in the Caribbean

“Something occurred to Father Bert, even as Wilfred glared at him. His former student looked like a wild animal that had just escaped its captors. Now that he’d found freedom, there was nothing to induce his return to the cage.”
― MiddleRoad Publishers, Junta: a novel set in the Caribbean

“Some of it had to do with perception, Father Bert thought. Tourists knew they were vulnerable on the island. Seeing squads of armed police patrolling the downtown core gave them a sense of confidence and reassured them it was safe to roam the shopping district.”
― MiddleRoad Publishers, Junta: a novel set in the Caribbean

“Over the years, the clamour had even been imbedded into his subconscious, to the point where he was able to read subtle changes in tone and pitch in the sounds, the way a conductor can detect the slightest change in pace in an orchestral rendition.”
― MiddleRoad Publishers, Junta: a novel set in the Caribbean

“It’s just that we seem to be forever stuck in perpetual stagnation in the islands. That, even though we’re nearly fourteen million people occupying an area much larger than England, the rest of the world seems to ignore us”
― MiddleRoad Publishers, Junta: a novel set in the Caribbean

“Marcus had the feeling she would have looked great in anything she wore. There was something else—every male passing within ten feet of her noticed her striking good looks.”
― MiddleRoad Publishers, Junta: a novel set in the Caribbean

“The diverse characters in the book become enmeshed in the struggle and the tension between them builds increasingly from page to page…” – Enrico Downer, author of There Once Was a Little England. “Ken Puddicombe’s JUNTA is an atypical novel set against a backdrop of a military coup in a Caribbean state.”
― MiddleRoad Publishers, Junta: a novel set in the Caribbean

“After a first novel—"Racing in the Rain" (2012)— introducing a Caribbean, steaming in post-colonial turbulence, Ken Puddicombe follows up with Junta, another suspenseful tale of churning political chaos, as Professor Marcus Jacobson discovers the elusive lure of democratic impulses in St Anglia, Caribbean home of his slave-owning ancestors.– Frank Birbalsingh author of Novels and The Nation: Essays in Canadian Literature.”
― MiddleRoad Publishers, Junta: a novel set in the Caribbean