num_pages: 226
description: Reminiscent of Raymond Carver and Tim O'Brien an unforgettable collection of interconnected short stories.In Fort Hood housing like all army housing you get used to hearing through the walls... You learn too much. And you learn to move quietly through your own small domain. You also know when the men are gone. No more boots stomping above no more football games turned up too high and best of all no more front doors slamming before dawn as they trudge out for their early formation sneakers on metal stairs cars starting shouts to the windows above to throw them down their gloves on cold desert mornings. Babies still cry telephones ring Saturday morning cartoons screech but without the men there is a sense of muted silence a sense of muted life. There is an army of women waiting for their men to return in Fort Hood Texas. Through a series of loosely interconnected stories Siobhan Fallon takes readers onto the base inside the homes into the marriages and families-intimate places not seen in newspaper articles or politicians' speeches. When you leave Fort Hood the sign above the gate warns You've Survived the War Now Survive the Homecoming. It is eerily prescient.
language: English
title: You Know When the Men Are Gone
publisher: Putnam Adult