Book excerpt: From the Shadows of Guazapa is a novella of triumph over tragedy. It is comprised of three stories; The Landmine serves as prologue to The Painter, and the two as prologue to The Gateway. The novella is set in assorted locales within a twenty mile radius in central El Salvador and explores themes endemic to El Salvador, and to all of humanity: the true cost of civil war, coming of age, struggles of will, acts of redemption, the power of art to reveal the nature of souls, and the strength of the human spirit to overcome adversity with focused determination. Through the purification of spirit the protagonist achieves by virtue of her painting and artistic mindset, a catharsis for a tragic and conflicted nation is provided.