Heroes by Robert Cormier

A disfigured and haunted young veteran returns to his small hometown after World War II determined to settle a score with the charismatic man who once mentored him and who betrayed the community and the girl he loved; as he plans vengeance and confronts the past, the novel probes guilt, courage, the ambiguous nature of heroism, and the sometimes devastating cost of holding others — and oneself — to impossible moral standards.

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