Cover design by Nicole Caputo

MEMORIAL DAY

Debut Novel By

BRENDAN WALSH

“Keep your mouth shut, and no one gets hurt.”

That’s what Joe DaSilva told himself to survive the Bataan Death March and nearly three years as a prisoner of war in the Philippines. When he comes home, he finds that his best friend, Bill, is engaged to Peggy, the woman he loved since kindergarten—and the woman who rejected his marriage proposal before he enlisted in the Navy.

To survive with his two best friends living the life he wanted at the end of his street, Joe adopts the mantra that served him well during the war, and walls himself off from his emotions and his friends. Until Leigh Ann and her daughter, Shelly, crash into his life and topple his carefully constructed defenses. This sets Joe on his reluctant journey toward acceptance and redemption.

Memorial Day is a story of friendship, love, 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.

Published: February 3, 2023

ISBN: 987-1-9772-6112-0