KELLY
About.
*2024 FINALIST, NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARD
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Inspired by Victoria Kelly’s experiences as the wife of a fighter pilot during three wartime deployments, this collection follows women whose lives have been impacted by war and military service as they struggle with their fragile ideas of home.
In “Prayers of an American Wife,” a Navy wife grapples with loneliness when she discovers that her neighbor, also a Navy wife, is having an affair while their husbands are deployed on the same aircraft carrier. Tensions rise in “The Strangers of Dubai” as a soldier on leave tries to buy his wife a souvenir from an Afghan vendor. After attending eight funerals with fellow military wives whose husbands died in the Iraq war, the protagonist in “Finding the Good Light” divorces her Navy husband and tries to start a new life as a movie star. These, along with the eleven other stories in this collection, explore the emotional landscape of the resilient women who remain on the homefront.
Kelly’s stories offer readers an intimate, eye-opening look into the sacrifices and steadfastness of military family members.
Order.
Praise.
“If you’ve given up on the power of the short story, this book will change your mind."
Karin Tanabe, author of The Sunset Crowd and A Woman of Intelligence
"Beautiful, heartbreaking, and unflinchingly honest.”
Ward Carroll, author of Punk's War, YouTuber, and retired naval aviator
"A perfect snapshot of American life in all its splendor and tragedy."
Siobhan Fallon, author of You Know When the Men Are Gone
"Victoria Kelly cements herself as one of our great chroniclers of the wars and peaces found in contemporary American life."
Matt Gallagher, author of Daybreak and Youngblood
"Gorgeous... each thought-provoking story is a page-turner."
Tif Marcelo, USA Today Bestselling Author of In a Book Club Far Away
“In a market overwhelmed by male voices and perspectives, Homefront adds important diversity to the literary landscape... Kelly’s writing is exceptional.”
Caleb Cage, U.S. Army veteran, author of Desert Mementos: Stories of Iraq and Nevada