Rejection, abandonment, bullying, alcoholism, reconciliation, redemption, love and enlightenment but above all, hope, are the themes of a memoir by Canadian Marcel Croteau, Conquering the War Within: Conversations with a WW II RCAF Rear Air Gunner (Austin MacCauley, 2019) co-authored with Lynda Manson. The ninety-five-year-old Sechelt veteran was decorated by King George VI and survived an unprecedented thirty-nine missions during the war -- not unscathed. He has endured a half-lifetime of PTSD. In 2014, France honoured the Sechelt veteran with a medal and made him a Knight of the Legion of Honour, its highest award, to go with a plethora of previous medals.

Conquering the War Within: Conversations with a WW II RCAF Rear Air Gunner (Austin MacCauley, 2019) $13.95 U.S. 9781643787077

[BCBW 2019]