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When he’s approached by a recruiter at a boxing tournament, troubled teenager Charlie Dale sees an opportunity. By enlisting in the United States Marine Corps, he can leave his unhappy childhood behind, transform himself wholesale, and finally find a place to belong. Stationed at a remote base in the Mojave Desert, he soon finds hard training and vicious hazing, brotherhood and a future. But when a single mistake means his unit deploys to Afghanistan without him, Charlie is cast adrift. How will he rebuild his life in the shadow of a war?

Drawing on the author’s experience as a Marine Corps infantry officer, Remedial Action interrogates the myths we tell ourselves about military service through the lens of one young man’s coming of age. Most war stories focus on how servicemembers change; Remedial Action instead asks what parts of them endure.

A vibrant tale of memory, resistance, and the enduring spirit of an island community

This richly woven, multi-voiced novel transports readers to a small village on São Miguel, the largest of Portugal’s Azores islands. Through the eyes of a young boy growing up in the 1940s, and the stories shared by his beloved great-uncle, Tio Pascoal, the novel paints a vivid portrait of island life—its beauty, its hardships, and its quiet defiance.

As Tio Pascoal recounts his own youth at the start of the 20th century, we glimpse a world shaped by poverty, exploitation, and the heavy hands of church, landowners, and, later, the rise of Portugal’s authoritarian regime. Yet amid these struggles, the resilience of the islanders shines through—in their music, their feast days, their customs, and the enduring ties between those who stayed behind and those who set sail for America.

Told in a style alive with the rhythms and color of the local language—carefully rendered into English—Roots Stirred is both a coming-of-age story and a tribute to the rebellious spirit that endures across generations. By the time the young narrator prepares to leave his childhood behind, his uncle’s stories have taken root within him, carrying forward the memory of their people and the islands they call home.