Retribution

RETRIBUTION is a surreal and very thought provoking love story about how fate or even divinity can bring two people together despite all odds. It is a multi-layered tale about John Stanic, who was a highly decorated member of the first Army Ranger battalion during WWII. He is now ninety years old and spending his last remaining days at a nursing facility in Pennsylvania, and recounting his complex life to a young priest. On the surface, John is a dying, reclusive and vulgar old man who shuns relationships, until the priest uncovers a past that is very dark, sinister and mysterious. John also reveals how the war and a power beyond his understanding led him to find the love of his life. John Stanic, as one reader described him, is an individual who will make you cringe and cheer for him at nearly the same moment. His personal moral code is a strength that will most definitely scare you. This book is his story. He now spends his days staring out of the window in his room, remembering his lost love and resigned to his fate while awaiting death. His life is now devoid of highs and lows, with little to look forward to or dream about, until the day he gets an unexpected visitor.

He is befriended by SHAWN O’DONNELL; a young and ambitious small town Catholic Priest determined to save his soul from hell’s fire and damnation. The priest is pressuring his reluctant new friend and sinner to give his confession before the old soldier dies. The priest, of course, professes a devout belief, but, because of the hand life has dealt him, John Stanic, is a staunch non-believer. However, since John has done unspeakable things so horrific during and after the war in an attempt to strike down evil of all kinds, he is reluctant to share his dark confession with the young priest. Eventually, after much prodding by Father O’Donnell, John agrees that in lieu of a traditional confession he would memorialize his fantastic life journey in writing and have the priest receive the manuscript after his death.

This story is his confession, which takes the reader on a voyage from John’s tragic childhood in a small coal mining town, to an orphanage and into the horrors of war. His life takes many twists which consist of religious doubts, rebellion, RETRIBUTION, reconciliation and finally redemption. It encompasses the entire life and times of John Stanic, leaving the reader to ponder: Is John Stanic simply a deranged seeker of vengeance and justice, or actually an ordained avenging warrior here to eradicate perpetrators of evil from wherever fate has placed him? The book has a subliminal, twist of fantasy, with well-developed characters and contains elements of, love, vengeance, faith, a very unlikely friendship, and in the end, salvation for both John and the Priest.

How does a man of God seeking forgiveness for others and a vigilante seeking vengeance and RETRIBUTION become kindred spirits? The answer lies in the deep recesses of the mind of each man that is only revealed by the uncommon bond they establish with each other. John finds an unexpected peace with his past and the priest finds a true and surprising meaning for his life.