Morning Dark — Daniel Buckman

Daniel Buckman has been praised for his stunning prose and sharp, riveting portrayals of the lives of American veterans in the wake of this country's twentieth-century wars. Morning Dark is the story of three generations of men from Watega County, Illinois, each pursued by the memories of the battles they fought and the wars they still dream of.

Big Walt Michalski is a decorated World War II veteran who built a plumbing empire in his hometown only to have his drunk, Vietnam-vet son, Walt, fritter away his inheritance, and the family business, on drugs and a series of dead-end marriages. Tom Jane, Walt's nephew and Big Walt's grandson, is a thirty-year-old career marine just out of the service with a dishonorable discharge. When Walt lets the memories of his failed life get the better of him, he takes off, intent on finding again the one place he ever felt free: outside the disappointed glare of Big Walt. But when he gets where he's going, he finds himself all too easily drawn back into a harrowing situation in which the life he's running from may turn out to be his only chance for salvation.