War's Over, Come Home

“Patrick Smithwick’s Sisyphean quest to find his son, a decorated two-tour Marine adrift in America and battling PTSD, takes him deep into the lives of the homeless, the lost, and the forgotten. Smithwick writes with devastating honesty about his harrowing and heartfelt journey to dark and tragic corners of the country, which puts himself and his loved ones at risk, while ultimately affirming the unbreakable bond of family. This intensely personal narrative is a call to action on behalf of veterans, twenty-two of whom commit suicide every day.”

                     --Richard Dresser – Award-winning playwright , author, screenwriting teacher, and president of the Writers Guild Initiative, which conducts writing workshops with veterans

“Patrick Smithwick’s wonderful books have always started from home—the beautiful terrain around Monkton, Maryland. He grew up the son and nephew of the steeple chasing Smithwick brothers, A. P. (“Paddy”) and Michael, and rode in the great Maryland Hunt Cup himself. Here he focuses on a family tragedy, the effect of two tours of duty in the Iraq War on his son Andrew, who returned with severe symptoms of PTSD and has lived as a wandering homeless man for most of the years since. The narrative of the family’s searches for Andrew has the intensity and suspense of a thriller. As Andrew’s troubles, distant as they are, gnaw at the family fabric, Smithwick handles the agreements and disagreements, the quarrels, his own and others’ occasional pettiness, with just the right level of clear-eyed depth. He is equally fair with the laws of privacy that sometimes prevent the family from finding out what they want to know, and the balance between their rights and Andrew’s is a central problem. No one who cares about the plight of today’s veterans should miss this splendid book.”

– Pulitzer Prize winning poet Henry Taylor, past co-director of the Master of Fine Arts program at American University, and author of the newly released This Tilted World Is Where I Live: New and Selected Poems 1962-2020.

TIMELY TIE-INS

March

Self-Injury Awareness Day - March 1

World Teen Mental Wellness Day - March 2

National Medal of Honor Day - March 25

National Vietnam War Veterans Day - March 29

April

Stress Awareness Month

Month of the Military Child

Month of Hope

National Fair Housing Awareness Month

Childhelp National Day of Hope - April 5

World Health Day- April 7

May

National Mental Health Awareness Month

Month of the Military Caregiver

Loyalty Day - May 1

Armed Forces Day - May 20

Memorial Day - May 29

June

National PTSD Awareness Month

Flag Day - June 14

Father’s Day - June 18

National PTSD Awareness Day - June 27

July

International Day in Support of Victims of Torture - June 26

National Love is Kind Day - July 27

August

Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism - August 21

National Grief Awareness Day - August 30

September

National Suicide Prevention Month

National POW/MIA Recognition Day - September 15

National Suicide Prevention Week - September 10

VFW Day - September 29

October

National Mental Illness Awareness Week - October 1

World Mental Health Day- October 10

November

Veteran’s Day - November 11