Restless Souls from Dan Sheehan is a wonderful mix of genres that manages to strike just the right balance between dark/heavy and light/humorous. Like life, the humor is in the mundane everyday that surrounds the large life-changing events and relationships.

While a bit of a buddy road trip type novel, thus a lot about what constitutes friendship and what are the possible limits of a friendship, it is also about war and the effects war can have on not only those present but those related to those present.

I recommend this to almost anyone primarily because there are so many ways to engage with the story. Friendship, PTSD (and associated disorders), limits (to friendship, to what constitutes a cure, to whether there are even limits to things such as grief or guilt), and then there is the humor that exists between lifelong friends (which often hides or cushions conflict). ( )

Restless Souls is one of those ‘sleeper’ debuts. Little buzz prior to publication; understated cover art. Even the publisher synopsis, for me, exudes an unassuming, typically Irish stoicism. But Dan Sheehan’s simple act of prefacing his debut with the haunting opening lines of U2’s iconic song Miss Sarajevo triggers memories, big ones, for those of us old enough to be cognizant of the atrocities that inspired them — and speaks to the author’s ambition. Read full review >> ( )

4* ( )