The Biblio Bookstore

The latest offering from Lawrence V. Stefanile is a stunning drama of personal courage, devotion, self-sacrifice, perfidy, cowardice and duplicity, and love tested in the crucible of adversity. Mr. Stefanile is a life-long resident of New Jersey. A retired chief executive officer in the health care and management consulting fields, he holds advanced degrees in social science and educational administration. Mr. Stefanile is the recipient of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Distinguished Service Award. They were young, the pretty girls and the handsome boys, Distant thunder faint in their ears, They danced and laughed away the burning hours of their youth, Then, thunder roared, And, like a flickering flame, gaiety died in the wind of war Lawrence V. Stefanile April 2015 1 The Ardennes Forest, Belgium Christmas Day, 1944 Vince Farro blew warm breath onto his trigger finger and slid it back into his glove. His wet feet felt like two blocks of ice. He peered through a wool mask under his helmet, his breath hanging like a gray cloud before dissipating into the icy air. Vince swung his rifle to eerie sounds, whistling through the snow-choked forest before him. Small arms fire erupted and then stopped leaving the night ghostly still. “Somebody got it,” he thought, dismissing the incident from his mind. “The guys that daydream don’t wake up,” Vince recalled Sergeant Carroll Darling’s warning in his thick Alabama drawl. “There’s one thing that might keep you all alive,” Darling began, “we all liked Jimmy Wilson, but Jimmy’s dead, one too many daydreams about his wife and kids and his farm in Idaho. Last night a Kraut infiltrator shoved his bayonet through Jimmy’s heart because Jimmy wasn’t paying attention. What I’m telling you jokers is you got to stay alert. You married guys this isn’t the time to be thinking of your wives and kids. The rest of you clowns forget about your girlfriends inviting you into paradise. Damn it! Stay alert! It’s al