Tells a provocative story about the return home of teenage war hero and war victim, Francis Joseph Cassavant. This book gets to the heart of human nature and the moral issues and choices we have to make.

'What if I told him I am not the hero he thinks I am . . .?'

Maimed and disfigured whilst fighting in the World War Two, young Francis Cassavant is returning to his hometown as a hero. But one who must hide both his face and his identity.

For his past holds a bitter secret, one which he has vowed to revenge and which he can resolve only through his final, desperate plan: to destroy the man who betrayed him as a boy.

Left without a face or a future, but sustained by his deep sense of shame, Francis watches. He thinks of the gun in his duffel bag and waits, alone, for the return of another supposed hero.

Praise for Robert Cormier:

The Chocolate War
'This is a tour de force and tour de force of realism' - Times

The Bumblebee Flies Away
'A novel you are unlikely to forget' - Times