Swansea Terminal by Robert Lewis

() This is a different theme from what I usually read. It revolves around a homeless veteran, who, after serving 25 or so years in the British marines, comes back with terminal lung cancer and a worsening alcohol addiction. He has no resource for treatment. His best friend is also a street-dwelling addict. The Vet has made some selfish choices that he attempts to fix before he dies; unfortunately, most of them only end up making the situations worse. E.g. he's been absent for most of his son's life, but the son doesn't want to have anything to do with him now.

There's no real lesson to the story except that maybe if you try to screw someone over, you'll probably also get screwed over. Also, maybe, that there are rarely happy endings.

It's a depressing, disappointing, but seemingly honest and believable story. Though the beginning can be a bit tedious and confusing. The main character doesn't have the clearest perspective to read from since he's usually intoxicated.