Hilton Head Monthly VD review

A visit to our island in 2004 served as the inspiration for this second novel by Maryland novelist Ronald Damien Malfi. Via Dolorosa, set on Hilton Head and recently named a finalist for the Anne and Franklin Cooley Endowment/Towson Prize for literature, follows the hardships of Nick D'Onofrio, a wounded American soldier who recently returned from Iraq. His honeymoon on Hilton Head with his wife Emma takes a turn for the worse when a storm rolls in, locking the island in a torrential downpour. Nick's increasing distance from his wife, along with the war wounds that hamper his art career, the resort's bell captain with his own ties to Nick's tenure in Iraq, plus an exotic photographer who has taken an interest in both Nick and his wife, combine to create a spellbinding novel of the walls we all build around us.

As the plot unfolds, and these walls begin to fall, Nick's own senses follow, and the terrifying pace with which Malfi takes us from Hilton Head to the streets of Iraq evoke the surreal feelings of a soldier returning home. It may not be light beach reading, but it's worth reading.

Via Dolorosa is available at major online retailers or through Raw Dog Screaming Press; visit them online at www.rawdogscreaming.com or see a 'trailer' for the book at www.ronmalfi.com.