The Heart You Carry Home - Paperback

by Jennifer Miller (Author)

A novel about surviving on the home front, fathers and daughters, and the limits and limitlessness of love

Becca Keller is no stranger to the way war can change a man. Her Vietnam vet father, King, has been more out of her life than in. Her mother boycotts her wedding because Becca is making the same mistakes she did--yoking herself to a man just back from battle. And Ben is different after his second tour. Within days of the wedding he turns dangerous, and Becca runs to the only person she has left.

King, though, is heading West with his motorcycle buddies, out to a place they call Kleos. A mysterious desert compound ruled over by a guru-like commanding officer, it is a refuge for some soldiers, but might be the death of others. There, Becca will be faced with the possibility that she may not know the real damage in her loved ones' hearts. In finally seeing her father's demons, she might just be able to start with her husband on their own journey back to peace.

The Heart You Carry Home lays bare the violence soldiers bring home, as one woman fights for the men in her life who have been scarred by different wars in disturbingly similar ways. It "combines great storytelling with social questions that are both as current and as old as war" (Karl Marlantes). And it mines the trials of generations of American families to find hope for the next.

Back Jacket

Here is a tale of family, community, love, and madness, as a woman who is both the daughter of a Vietnam veteran and wife of an Iraq veteran journeys to heal the heart-wounds of war. The Heart You Carry Home combines great storytelling with social questions that are both as current and as old as war.I read it in one sitting. Karl Marlantes, author of Matterhorn

Becca Keller is no stranger to the way war can change a man. Her Vietnam vet father, King, has been more out of her life than in. Her mother boycotts her wedding because Becca is repeating her mistakes yoking herself to a man just back from battle. And Ben is different after this second tour. Within days of the wedding he turns dangerous, and Becca runs to the only person she has left.

King, though, is heading West with his motorcycle buddies, out to a place they call Kleos. A mysterious desert compound ruled over by a guru-like commanding officer, it is a refuge for some soldiers, but proves to be the death of others. There, Becca is faced with the possibility that she may not know the real damage in her loved ones hearts.

Through one woman s fight for the men in her life, The Heart You Carry Homelays barethe violence soldiers bring home, mines the trials of generations of American families to find hope for the next, and offers lessons on the limits and limitlessness of love.

The Heart You Carry Homeisa story about fathers and daughters, and how the legacy of war not only breaks families apart, but can pull them back together. Joanna Smith Rakoff, author of My Salinger Year

This book packs an honest punch. A testimony to love s ultimate ability to heal even our most hidden wounds. Sarah McCoy, New York Timesbest-selling authorofThe Baker s Daughter

A powerhouse of a novel [that] cuts right to the heart. David Abrams, author of Fobbit

JENNIFER MILLER s reporting on vets for the New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor inspired this novel. She writes for the Washington Post Magazine and Marie Claire, among others. She teaches at Columbia University and lives in Brooklyn.
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