“You Know When the Men are Gone” is a powerful, singular and unforgettable collection of interconnected short stories that explore the forgotten casualties — the wives and families of the Military men who fight overseas. In Fort Cavazos, Texas (formerly Fort Hood) there is an army of women waiting for their husbands to return. One wife, in an attempt to avoid thinking about the risks her husband faces in Iraq, develops an unhealthy obsession with the secret life of her neighbor. A simple trip to the PX becomes unbearable for another woman when she pulls into her Gold Star parking space. Even when the soldiers return, the terrain is uncertain, as one man discovers when he plans a covert surveillance operation against his own home.
When you leave Fort Cavazos, the sign above the gate warns, You’ve Survived the War, Now Survive the Homecoming.
It is eerily prescient.