When She Came Home

by Drusilla Campbell

Overview

Frankie Byrne Tennyson stunned everyone when she decided to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps. Now — after bravely serving her country in Iraq — she's finally come home. Home to a husband whose lingering feelings of abandonment make her wonder if their lives can ever be the same. Home to a daughter whose painful encounters with bullies can only be healed by a mother's love. And home to a father who still can't accept his daughter's decision to serve in spite of his own stellar career as a brigadier general. But the most difficult part about coming home lies within Frankie herself. To save everything she holds dear, she must face the toughest battle of her life . . .

A moving portrait of a modern American family, When She Comes Home reminds us that some things — honor, acceptance, and, above all, love — are truly worth fighting for.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455510351
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	04/09/2013
Pages:	323
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Drusilla Campbell is the author of three critically acclaimed novels: Wildwood, The Edge of Sky, and Blood Orange. Before she started school she had crossed the Pacific Ocean three times. In her twenties she lived in Europe and Central America. Today she's happy to stay at home in San Diego with her husband, the attorney and poet Art Campbell, two rescued dogs, and three horses.

Editorial Reviews

"A heart-wrenching novel that deals with a number of important social issues... [Campbell] transports the reader into the heart, soul and mind of Francine Byrne Tennyson to feel her pain, recall her vivid childhood memories and experience her crises of conscience."—Kirkus

"Campbell's powerful novel explores the depth of depravity cloaked as charity and the ability to take a leap of faith and change the direction of one's life. This compelling story will stay with you long after the book is finished."—Monsters and Critics on Little Girl Gone

"Campbell writes with deceptive simplicity all the more impressive for the psychological currents simmering below the surface of a barren terrain. Lives made vulnerable by accommodation to loneliness are caught in the web of one man's madness, the rugged landscape a bleak canvas for all manner of bad decisions. But fate intervenes on behalf of Brock's prisoners, a life-long lie is revealed, a boy's fantastical tale proved true, and the frayed connections between a mother and daughter mended in a novel that celebrates the power of friendship and the freedom to make one's own choices."—www.curledup.com on Little Girl Gone

"Campbell's latest has full-blown appeal for teen readers, echoing stories of abduction in the news (a là Jaycee Dugard, and her memoir A Stolen Life) or popular fiction (think of Emma Donoghue's Alex Award-winning Room)."—Library Journal on Little Girl Gone

"Little Girl Gone peers insightfully into the lives of people easily written off as monsters. With an economy of style, vivid details, and grace of expression, Drusilla Campbell has written a novel well worth staying up late to keep reading."—Laurel Corona, author of PENELOPE'S DAUGHTER and FINDING EMILIE on Little Girl Gone

"When is the last time you cheered out loud for a character in a novel? That's what I did as I read Drusilla Campbell's Little Girl Gone. The complex relationships between Campbell's richly drawn characters took me on a psychological roller coaster that tested my expectations, my values, and my heart. This story of tension and triumph is a perfect bookclub selection. Don't miss it!"—Diane Chamberlain, bestselling author of The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes on Little Girl Gone

"Nobody gets to the marrow of human flaws and frailties better than Drusilla Campbell. In LITTLE GIRL GONE you are immersed in the lives of people you think you'll never meet and come to care deeply about what happens to each of them. This is a compelling story that won't leave you alone even after you've turned the last page."—Judy Reeves, Author of A WRITER'S BOOK OF DAYS on Little Girl Gone

"An unflinching portrayal of life in emotional and physical captivity. Campbell has a powerfully understated voice and resists the easy path of sensationalizing the story. Instead she provides authentic drama rich with complex psychological composition. The result is a novel that is hard to read, but even harder to put down."—San Diego Union Tribune on Little Girl Gone

"Drusilla Campbell is a long time writer with several books in print. She is very talented in winding stories with strong women finding their voices. She proves that she knows what she is doing with Little Girl Gone."—ChaptersandChats.com on Little Girl Gone

"Drusilla Campbell uses lyrical descriptions of the desert setting to make each character's loneliness more atmospheric."
—Newark Star Ledger on Little Girl Gone

"Little Girl Gone is a fantastic exploration into domestic violence and the power of courage in the face of tragedy."—BookFinds on Little Girl Gone

On WILDWOOD:
"Resist the urge to turn the page to find out what happens next. Linger, instead, to savor the skillfully crafted writing." —Judy Reeves, author of Writing Alone, Writing Together

"The pull of family and career, the limits of friendship and the demands of love all come to vivid life in Wildwood." —Susan Vreeland, author of Girl in Hyacinth Blue

On THE GOOD SISTER:
"The story will make you ache for these two women who are bound inextricably and irrevocably by their shared past." —bestselling author T. Greenwood

"With unflinching honesty, Drusilla Campbell explores the emotional complexities between sisters and mothers, and just how far we will go to hurt and help each other. Poignant and intense." —Ellen Newmark, author of The Book of Unholy Mischief

"Campbell burns through Simone's struggles and those of Roxanne in haunting, graphic detail. Should be on everyone's book club list." —Publisher's Weekly

From the Publisher

"Little Girl Gone is a fantastic exploration into domestic violence and the power of courage in the face of tragedy."

BookFinds on Little Girl Gone

"Drusilla Campbell uses lyrical descriptions of the desert setting to make each character's loneliness more atmospheric."

Newark Star Ledger on Little Girl Gone

"Drusilla Campbell is a long time writer with several books in print. She is very talented in winding stories with strong women finding their voices. She proves that she knows what she is doing with Little Girl Gone."

ChaptersandChats.com on Little Girl Gone

"An unflinching portrayal of life in emotional and physical captivity. Campbell has a powerfully understated voice and resists the easy path of sensationalizing the story. Instead she provides authentic drama rich with complex psychological composition. The result is a novel that is hard to read, but even harder to put down."

San Diego Union Tribune on Little Girl Gone

"Nobody gets to the marrow of human flaws and frailties better than Drusilla Campbell. In LITTLE GIRL GONE you are immersed in the lives of people you think you'll never meet and come to care deeply about what happens to each of them. This is a compelling story that won't leave you alone even after you've turned the last page."

Judy Reeves

"When is the last time you cheered out loud for a character in a novel? That's what I did as I read Drusilla Campbell's Little Girl Gone. The complex relationships between Campbell's richly drawn characters took me on a psychological roller coaster that tested my expectations, my values, and my heart. This story of tension and triumph is a perfect bookclub selection. Don't miss it!"

Diane Chamberlain

"Little Girl Gone peers insightfully into the lives of people easily written off as monsters. With an economy of style, vivid details, and grace of expression, Drusilla Campbell has written a novel well worth staying up late to keep reading."

Laurel Corona

"Campbell writes with deceptive simplicity all the more impressive for the psychological currents simmering below the surface of a barren terrain. Lives made vulnerable by accommodation to loneliness are caught in the web of one man's madness, the rugged landscape a bleak canvas for all manner of bad decisions. But fate intervenes on behalf of Brock's prisoners, a life-long lie is revealed, a boy's fantastical tale proved true, and the frayed connections between a mother and daughter mended in a novel that celebrates the power of friendship and the freedom to make one's own choices."

www.curledup.com on Little Girl Gone

"Campbell's powerful novel explores the depth of depravity cloaked as charity and the ability to take a leap of faith and change the direction of one's life. This compelling story will stay with you long after the book is finished."

Monsters and Critics on Little Girl Gone

"Drusilla Campbell uses lyrical descriptions of the desert setting to make each character's loneliness more atmospheric."

Newark Star Ledger

"Drusilla Campbell is a long time writer with several books in print. She is very talented in winding stories with strong women finding their voices. She proves that she knows what she is doing with Little Girl Gone."

ChaptersandChats.com

"An unflinching portrayal of life in emotional and physical captivity. Campbell has a powerfully understated voice and resists the easy path of sensationalizing the story. Instead she provides authentic drama rich with complex psychological composition. The result is a novel that is hard to read, but even harder to put down."

San Diego Union Tribune

"Campbell writes with deceptive simplicity all the more impressive for the psychological currents simmering below the surface of a barren terrain. Lives made vulnerable by accommodation to loneliness are caught in the web of one man's madness, the rugged landscape a bleak canvas for all manner of bad decisions. But fate intervenes on behalf of Brock's prisoners, a life-long lie is revealed, a boy's fantastical tale proved true, and the frayed connections between a mother and daughter mended in a novel that celebrates the power of friendship and the freedom to make one's own choices."

curledup.com

"Campbell's powerful novel explores the depth of depravity cloaked as charity and the ability to take a leap of faith and change the direction of one's life. This compelling story will stay with you long after the book is finished."

Monsters and Critics

A novel that deals with a number of important social issues, including the actions of private contractors in war, the treatment of women in the armed services, domestic violence and school bullying. The author transports the reader into the heart, soul and mind of Francine Byrne Tennyson to feel her pain, recall her vivid childhood memories and experience her crises of conscience. It is clear that Frankie's father, a highly decorated Marine general, expects his son to follow in his footsteps. But when her older brother loses his legs after an auto accident, Francine is determined that she will be the one to make her father proud. She excels in academics as well as athletics and after 9/11 decides to enlist in the Marines herself despite having a baby daughter. Both her husband and her father are unhappy about her decision. For years she performs office work near home but eventually is deployed to Iraq and returns with sufficient fear, anxiety and anger to warrant treatment for PTSD. She avoids treatment for a while as she struggles with the memory of witnessing a private contractor murder a child, a boy about the same age as her own daughter. She blames herself for not somehow preventing it and then struggles with the question of whether or not to testify at a Senate hearing regarding the conduct of the private contractors in Iraq. In the midst of all this, she watches her daughter act out her own anger and frustration at school, where other kids make fun of her, and she attempts to assist another female veteran with a daughter who is homeless and hiding from an abusive ex-husband. Ultimately, in this heart-wrenching tale, Frankie figures out what she must do to help herself and her family.

Kirkus Reviews