Damaged Goods
Damaged Goods
by Paul Scheufele
Released July 27, 2025
What if your family's future depended on a choice you never expected to make?
Brendan O'Shay has built his life around certainty. As a high-performing Wall Street trader at the peak of his career during the 2008 financial crisis, he's no stranger to high-stakes decisions. But when his estranged sister unexpectedly passes away-and leaves him in charge of her frozen eggs-Brendan is pulled from boardrooms and spreadsheets into a deeply personal dilemma that forces him to confront the limits of logic, legacy, and love.
What follows isn't just a legal or medical decision-it's a reckoning.
Set against the energetic backdrop of Manhattan, the windswept calm of Cape Cod, and the socio-economic struggles of New Hampshire's working class, Damaged Goods is a heartfelt, emotionally powerful novel about family, grief, and the human desire for connection. As Brendan tries to move forward, he faces tough questions: What does it mean to honor a sibling's legacy? Can redemption come through selflessness instead of control? And what does it mean to be a good husband, father, and brother?
As Brendan reconnects with a past love, reevaluates a struggling marriage, and tries to reach his disillusioned teenage son, he begins to reflect on the life he built-and the one he lost along the way.
Paul Scheufele holds degrees in American Studies from Middlebury College and Fairfield University, and an MBA from Babson College. Before pursuing fiction full-time, he worked in finance, ultimately becoming a Managing Director at a global investment bank. Later, he taught upper school English at two private schools in Connecticut for nearly a decade. These experiences add depth and authenticity to his storytelling. A native of New England, Paul and his wife, Susan, raised three sons in Fairfield County, CT. Now, Paul and Susan live in Boston and Truro, MA. When he’s not writing, Paul enjoys reading literary fiction, golfing, gardening, hiking, and spending time with his children and grandchildren.
