A Door in His Head — B.W. Clough

 In 1946 he arrives in California, crippled and unable to function. He renames himself Stephen, and sets out to acquire an education and a career, reaching out for the love and life he knows he deserves. But all the wreckage of WW2 is still there, glowing radioactive-hot, behind the door in his head. To really recover, he has to go back and face all the people and betrayals he's suppressed, even if it kills him.