The DO Book Club, March 2026: ‘Passages: A Voyage from War to Peace’

As a book reviewer for The DO Book Club, I have expanded my limited reading adventures to a wider variety of genres that I might never have gone to on my own. “Passages: A Voyage from War to Peace,” a 2025 novel written by a retired physician, P.K. Edgewater (his pen name), is one of these works I was happy to discover and recommend. The subtitle refers to the dual journeys of a troubled Vietnam War veteran re-entering stateside life and the young Greek psychiatrist who emigrates to the U.S. and treats him over the course of several years.

Early on, we meet young Miko, the son of a Greek fisherman who makes his way from a rural fishing village to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he is a psychiatry resident at a Veteran Affairs hospital. On one of his nights of call, Miko admits A.J., an armed and drunk Vietnam War veteran who seems poised to harm himself or someone else.

What unfolds over much of the book are the biweekly (then monthly) therapy visits that A.J. has with the young psychiatrist-in-training. The old vet recounts his experiences as a young navy recruit and the high responsibility role he had as an Operational Specialist, or radar man, on a navy combat vessel. The stories of his heroics and his vessel in action are the most exciting parts of the book.

The dual journeys of a veteran and an immigrant

A.J. conveys the exhilaration of his position as the radar man who helped evade the attack on his ship. After returning from the war, like so many veterans, A.J. struggled to find his place and his identity. Through the words of this character, the author articulates the thoughts of those veterans returning from combat.

“When your service is up, you’re glad to get home. Once there, your thoughts wander back at times to that high that comes at the peak of battle, and just after. You miss it and kind of hunger for the conflict. A young man doing incredibly complex, coordinated things with a group of guys just like him—he feels his best self. You never reach that pinnacle of fear, excitement, exhilaration, adrenaline; you never see it again. That’s why these four or five years remain so much a center of your life, so much of who you are. You don’t realize it until you get out, that civilian life is such a letdown. And it’s really hard to adjust.” (p. 140)

A.J.’s spouse bears the brunt of his impulsive and violent behavior. Domestic violence, sexual assault, alcoholism and infidelity figure strongly into the story. Like so many abused women, A.J.’s beleaguered wife stays with her husband. Honestly, I would have liked to have seen her go to the police and press charges, but, as we often see in similar real-life scenarios when exiting an abusive situation is highly complicated, this is not what happened. As a reader, I found myself wondering if this traumatized man could be rehabilitated and if this troubled character deserved a happy ending.

In parallel, we also follow physician Miko’s family story in Greece and the U.S.. He and his wife must navigate the challenges of life as immigrants to a strange and often unwelcoming land. Miko’s insecurity as a trainee recedes as he gains experience with A.J. and his other patients. His pleasant manner extends to his way of explaining therapy to his reluctant patients. During a conversation where A.J. expresses his frustration with how his therapy will proceed, the doctor explains about exploring his marriage, career, service and the other parts of his life.

“A.J., my job is more like when you go into a house that you have never seen before. You go into each room and learn what’s in there and how it contributes to the life in the house. The rooms are all quite different, but part of the same house. Then you ask what needs to be done in each room to make the whole house a livable home … You and I will walk through those rooms together and hopefully find the things that are making some rooms uninhabitable … Over time, hopefully one by one, you can put the rooms in order.” (p. 45)

Brutal history and what we can learn from it

Younger readers may be unfamiliar with this era of American history and the great swell of anti-war sentiment that took hold in the U.S. Some of that vitriol was directed at the returning veterans. The description of A.J.’s naval service gets highly detailed and technical. The author portrays the feeling held by many young soldiers and sailors that the war was a futile endeavor.

From the mouth of the veteran, “Service men knew early on, nonetheless, we were wasting our time in Vietnam. We thought Army and Marine leaders were just wasting our lives. We just said it, at least to each other and to our own, to our own CPOs and the like. We’d read the reports every day. We saw what was going on. Young soldiers would get killed taking this little village or hill, and for what? Then we’d give ‘em up and leave—we never held territory. It just seemed pointless.” (p. 107)

“Passages” explores trust, loyalties and the search for self-knowledge. According to the author, given a safe space and a skilled, receptive listener, even injured and traumatized veterans can open up and begin to heal. Readers will learn quite a bit about Naval operations during the Vietnam War and the experiences of many returning veterans. I recommend this book to my fellow DOs and to osteopathic medical students.  

Last year, I reviewed Kristen Hannah’s “The Women,” which told the stories of the nurses who served in Vietnam. Those ladies faced many of the same issues as the male veterans of “Passages”—scorn or total disregard for their service, unrecognized trauma, alcoholism and isolation. Reading stories like these can help guide us toward helping veterans in the ways they need assistance.

Related reading:

The DO Book Club, Jan. 2026: ‘Adversity and Courage: The Breast Center’

The DO Book Club, Nov. 2025: ‘Recitatif’