School’s out but the Mahoney family’s summer is anything but lazy. As they inch closer to the halfway point of Liam’s year-long deployment to Iraq, tensions heighten each time he goes outside the wire, challenging Emilie’s ability to keep it together. Meanwhile Finn and Rory find themselves in some unorthodox situations, providing comic relief for the makeshift family Emilie has assembled in Liam’s absence.
Wade and Isabel’s marriage is on the rocks again, even as Wade makes strides toward personal recovery with the help of the VA and a strong support network. Aunt Dottie’s boyfriend Joey struggles with retirement as his memories of the Vietnam War and a troubled past resurface. Danger closes in on Fakhir’s family in Baghdad as they anxiously await their visas. Unexpected events prompt Fakhir to confide in Emilie, revealing his secrets one morsel at a time. And when it comes to secrets, Agnes shares some whoppers that blow everyone’s preconceptions to pieces.
Propelled by a plot that accelerates with each turn of the page, Since You Went Away portrays in intimate detail the effects of a distant war on the families and returning veterans at home. At once poignant and darkly funny, it is a fly-on-the-wall account of the innermost workings of a military family—their fears and hopes, their struggles and disappointments, their unexpected moments of joy and comfort and laughter.
This is Part Three of a novel released in four parts.
C O M I N G S O O N : Part Four: Winter
Nan McCarthy 