While attending a Veterans Day assembly, which he arranged for his interdisciplinary classes at Oceanside High School more than 10 years ago, Frank Nappi met two World War II veterans.

"The stories they told me haunted me in a way I could never really describe. I became very close with both of them," Nappi explained. "I got a glimpse into what it was like to walk around with a whole other life in your head; how difficult it is to manage both."

In time Nappi, a 1985 graduate of Farmingdale High School, began writing short stories and ultimately wove them together.

"While I was constructing the book, I realized that the soldier and the idea of war is a perfect vehicle through which other more universal issues may be explored," Nappi said.

His inspirations for the novel, for which he dedicated it to, were Farmingdale resident Bill McGinn and Oceanside resident Eddie Hynes. McGinn passed away in 2000.

The writing and publishing of the book took about two years and St. Martin's Press released it at the end of October. So far, this first-time published author said he has received positive feedback about the book.

"Kirkus Reviews did a wonderful review Sept. 1 and The New York Times did a feature story on Nov. 13," Nappi said. "News 12 is running a segment on Dec. 7."

Nappi, an English teacher in the Oceanside School District, said this historical fiction novel "is being used in some districts as part of their interdisciplinary programs."

Echoes from the Infantry is the tale of one Long Island World War II veteran, the misery of combat, and the powerful emotional bonds that brought him home. It is about a father and a son, and their ultimately redeeming struggle to understand each other's worlds - one a world at war, the other a world shaped by its veterans . All James McCleary wants to do is forget the horrors of the battlefield. All his son John wants is to know his father. But memory is unforgiving, and James remains locked inside his own mind, unable to embrace his wife and children as he would like to. Meanwhile John wrestles with troubling recollections of life with this enigmatic man he calls his father. Now the death of John's mother draws the men together for a final showdown. As he sifts through family artifacts in his parent's attic, the disgruntled son gets a glimpse of the eternally frozen battlefields that left his father scarred and of the quiet, secret love that sustained him across the wasted expanse of wartime Europe.

Nappi will appear at Chapter One Books, 3185 Long Beach Rd. in Oceanside on Nov. 26 from 11 a.m.-1p.m.; at Borders Books & Music, 1260 Old Country Rd. in Westbury on Dec. 1 from 7-9 p.m. and on Dec. 10 at Barnes & Noble, 5224 Sunrise Hwy. in Massapequa from 1-3 p.m. For more information visit www.franknappi.com or email info@franknappi.com.

Nappi is married with two children, Nicholas and Anthony. He and his family reside in Massapequa.