As the United States of America gears up to celebrate Veterans Day on Nov. 11, the Summit County Library will get a jump on things with Park City-based author Scott Zuckerman.Zuckerman, a medical doctor, surgeon, acupuncturist and winner of the Utah Arts & Museum’s 2015 Utah Original Writing Competition, will discuss his new book, “Nothing Left to Prove, Nothing Left to Hide: The Long and Winding Road to Redemption of Major Sebastian Thomas Tosto,” at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 7, at the Summit County Library’s Kimball Junction Branch, 1885 W. Ute Blvd.The event is free and open to the public, and Zuckerman will have books available at the event for purchase and signing.The book is also available at Amazon and sunburypress.com.“I’m very honored to present some details about my work, because I’m very proud of it, to my fellow community,” Zuckerman said, “especially in proximity to Veterans Day, because the book is largely focused on veterans and their journeys.”“Nothing Left to Prove, Nothing Left to Hide,” which was published nearly a year ago, chronicles the life of Major Sebastian Thomas Tosto, a war veteran and friend, Zuckerman said.“This gentleman was a medical student of mine back in 1992,” he said. “Tom was a little older than I was but a third-year medical student, and I was the director of the pediatric emergency room at the time.”Tosto’s “colorful life” leading up to medical school always intrigued Zuckerman.“We had developed a close relationship, and I learned some things about him while he was one of my students,” he said.Shortly after Tosto earned his medical degree, he and Zuckerman parted ways. Tosto started his own practice, and Zuckerman started a new hobby — writing.After Zuckerman published his first book, “Dreams of my Comrades,” the story that won 2015’s Utah’s Original Writing competition, he reconnected with Tosto.“I discovered he sold his medical practice after 9/11, joined the 82nd Airborne Division and became a paratrooper at the age of 50,” Zuckerman said. “He was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq and rose to the level of Brigade Surgeon. So that was the starting point that led me to wanting to tell his story.”At that time, Tosto lived in Connecticut, so Zuckerman flew out for a visit.“It was more about catching up with him,” Zuckerman said. “Although I wanted to write a book about him, I put the idea on the backburner. My first book had been published, and I focused on marketing that.”When the world shut down due to COVID-19 in 2020, Zuckerman found a lot of time on his hands.“My acupuncture practice was decimated, so I took that opportunity to sit down and write Tom’s book because this story really needed to be told,” he said.Along the way, Tosto supplied Zuckerman with names of soldiers and officers with whom he served.“These people had very interesting stories of their own, and each of them worked with Tom in different points of his military career,” Zuckerman said. “Maj. David Johnston served with him on his first deployment to Afghanistan. Sgt. Ben Martin was with Tom was with him in Afghanistan but also Iraq.”Scott Zuckerman, Park City-based surgeon and award-winning author, has published a new book, “Nothing Left to Prove, Nothing Left to Hide: The Long and Winding Road to Redemption of Major Sebastian Thomas Tosto,” a biography about one of his former medical students who became a paratrooper at age 50. Credit: Courtesy of Scott ZuckermanZuckerman also connected with Tosto’s sister, who chose a pseudonym for privacy purposes.“Tom’s parents were deceased by the time I interviewed him, but I did have the opportunity to interview his sister,” he said. “They had quite a contentious relationship, so I was fortunate that she consented to an interview, and I conducted the interview very delicately. She was reluctant to talk with me about a lot of things, so I pried just enough to get information, but not too much to alienate her. Then, a few months after I interviewed her, she passed away.”During the interviews, which Zuckerman conducted via Zoom, he learned more about Tosto’s military career and his strained family life.“I found out quite a bit about Tom’s upbringing and the drama that led him to accomplish all the things in his life,” Zuckerman said. “He had a troubled childhood, and he harbored a secret about himself throughout his life. That narrative is there throughout the book but isn’t fully revealed until the end.”Zuckerman pieced the interviews together to form a complete picture of Tosto.“Each person I interviewed knew Tom from a limited perspective,” he said. “For example, his sister only knew him as a brother who she had a lot of angst towards, but she knew nothing about his military experience.”To give the book some character, Zuckerman took a unique narrative angle.“They were able to give me an image of Tom in a narrow spectrum, so, in order to give the big picture, I chose to write each chapter in a different first-person voice,” he said. “It was challenging to keep continuity but also maintain the individual voices of the people with whom I conducted the interviews.”Since most of those he interviewed are veterans, the book contains some “salty language,” Zuckerman said.“But they are all American heroes, and their stories need to be told,” he said. “Each of the men I interviewed, shared their stories in remarkable detail even though they had never met me. Some checked with Tom to make sure I was legit, which is fair, and I took their trust to heart because they trusted me to tell their stories.”Zuckerman also wrote a couple of chapters in his own voice.“One includes the story of the night I first met Tom and worked with him in the pediatric ER,” he said. “And the other is about my thoughts on Tom’s courage. I’m proud that Tom had the courage to allow this whole story to be told in its entirety, and I’m proud he trusted me to tell it in a compassionate way, which I think I did. The story is one of redemption, and it’s about Tom, who had lived most of his life trying to redeem himself in his eyes.”Scott Zuckerman author eventWhen: 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 7 Where: Summit County Library Kimball Junction Branch, 1885 W. Ute Blvd. Web: thesummitcountylibrary.org/calendarThe post Veteran’s story of redemption has ‘Nothing Left to Prove’ appeared first on Park Record.