Memorial Day

"You don't reminisce about things you'd rather forget."

That's what Joe DaSilva told his best friend, Bill, whenever he asked Joe about the war, surviving the Bataan Death March, or his three years as a prisoner of war in the Philippines. Of course, Joe just as easily could have been talking about his childhood love, Peggy, to whom he had proposed before the war, but who married Bill even after Joe returned to their small New England town.

Despite Joe's attempts to bury his pain by hiding from his emotions, it is the trio's intricate friendship, and an unforeseen disruption to his walled-off life, that ultimately paves the way for Joe's redemption.

Memorial Day is a story of friendship, misunderstandings, and the life-long disruptions caused by war. It makes visible the lasting wounds that victims of unimaginable acts bear throughout their lives, and invites the silent ghosts of the lives we once imagined to make amends with the lives we have lived.

"Those looking for a bighearted tale of PTSD and catharsis will find much to love in Joe's story." -Kirkus Reviews