The Early Shelf

Historical Fiction

Sky to the Trenches

by Geoffrey P Barrett

About the book

Manny came to Zaire because he chose to. At twenty-three, the young Ghanaian leaves his family behind to help people caught in a conflict he believes is not somebody else's fight. Military life brings him a new rank — Flight Lieutenant — and something he could never have expected. Horacio. His Portuguese Wing Commander is confident, outrageous and seemingly incapable of facing danger without making it considerably more complicated. When a routine patrol goes catastrophically wrong, the two airmen fall from the relative safety of the skies into a fight for survival on the ground. Stranded during the 1977 Shaba conflict, getting home means surviving hostile jungle, rebels, capture and an increasingly ridiculous series of disasters — with some unexpected companions joining them along the way. But beneath the absurdity, the danger is real. And the friendship between Manny and Horacio may prove more important than either ever expected. Because sometimes surviving a war isn't about being the bravest man in the room. Sometimes it's about having the right idiot beside you.