613 West Jefferson

D.S. LLITERAS

Vietnam veteran Rickard Santo is lost, his past and future clouded by drugs and alcohol: to hill time, to hill memories, possibly even to hill himself, to escape from both life and death, and push the memories of war back into the void.

Santo struggles to stay afloat in the wreckage of his post-war life. But something deep within him has forever changed as a result of the war: the jungle, the fear, the chaos, the ghosts of friends and enemies alike. All this he survived, but at what cost? What does it mean to be alive? What does it mean to be dead? For Santo, there is little difference anymore.

Whether in the jungles of Southeast Asia engaged in combat, or awash in the strangeness of a Tallahassee halfway house, Santo walks a lonely line between life and death: waiting and watching, remembering and trying to forget.

Now a new battle looms: a war for his soul, a fight against self-destruction. With the skills he learned in combat, Santo must rediscover a reason to live, the ability to love, and a way to make sense of w hat he endured.

Understated, yet powerfully engaging, 613 West Jefferson may be the finest work D. S. Lliteras has yet produced.