My Gun Was as Tall as Me

2012 | Fiction & Poetry

High in the Alps, Tuvol, the son of a great European humanitarian, crawls into a snow hole in a deliberate attempt to die. On the other side of the world, in the stifling heat of a South East Asian jungle, twin boys, Lynch and Leer - robbed of speech at birth by a mother unhinged by atrocity - await yet another military assault on their decimated village. Saved from suicide by Etaine, an NGO worker, Tuvol leaves his dysfunctional family, following her to South East Asia to try and find purpose helping those maimed, orphaned and displaced by a brutal regime. As Tuvol and the twins both flee their very different personal traumas, fate will draw them together in a way that changes all three lives forever. Acclaimed for his shocking, ground-breaking debut, Scar Culture, Toni Davidson's long-awaited second novel is at once tender, harrowing, deeply moving and utterly compelling. An epic story of family disintegration, state-sponsored persecution and the irreconcilable compromises of delivering aid, Davidson assembles an enthralling cast of characters, beguiling and wholly authentic in equal measure.

My Gun Was As Tall As Me is a meticulously researched, gripping and truly unforgettable story of conflict, damaged childhood, redemption and self-discovery, unlike anything you will have ever read before.

Toni Davidson (Author)