Home Front

By: Kristin Hannah

Narrated by: Maggi-Meg Reed

Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

"Home Front is Hannah's crowning achievement."—The Huffington Post

In this powerhouse of a novel, Kristin Hannah explores the intimate landscape of a troubled marriage with this provocative and timely portrait of a husband and wife, in love and at war.

All marriages have a breaking point. All families have wounds. All wars have a cost. . . .

Like many couples, Michael and Jolene Zarkades have to face the pressures of everyday life—children, careers, bills, chores—even as their twelve-year marriage is falling apart. Then a deployment sends Jolene deep into harm's way and leaves defense attorney Michael at home, unaccustomed to being a single parent to their two girls. As a mother, it agonizes Jolene to leave her family, but as a solider, she has always understood the true meaning of duty. In her letters home, she paints a rose-colored version of her life on the front lines, shielding her family from the truth. But war will change Jolene in ways that none of them could have foreseen. When tragedy strikes, Michael must face his darkest fear and fight a battle of his own—for everything that matters to his family.

At once a profoundly honest look at modern marriage and a dramatic exploration of the toll war takes on an ordinary American family, Home Front is a story of love, loss, heroism, honor, and ultimately, hope.

"Hannah has written a remarkable tale of duty, love, strength, and hope that is at times poignant and always thoroughly captivating and relevant." —Library Journal (starred review)

©2012 Kristin Hannah (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Kristin Hannah's Home Front, read with fine emotional nuance by Maggi-Meg Reed, is the kind of novel that grabs your heart as it draws you in…Keep the Kleenex close, and breathe through the lumps in your throat.” —Booklist

“The novel's second half, a moving exploration of the impact of post-traumatic stress disorder on an already shaky family dynamic, is especially well read by Maggi-Meg Reed, who inhabits all the voices and characters with skill and heartfelt emotion. A timely book that is highly recommended for all audiences.” —Library Journal, Starred Review

So good!

This book was amazing and really makes you think about what military families give up.

Voice sad

I never realized just how sad this narrator sounds. Maggie’s read was so sad to me.

Good reading

This is a very good book a very potent book. You can laugh, cry, it’s very enjoyable. I enjoyed how she wrote about each character how they felt, how she loves her children, and the awesome come back she came after going to war and coming home injured. She overcame at all and it was beautiful the way the author began the story and end of the story thank you very much

Overall, a great novel

I loved the story. I go thru 3 audible books a month, over several years, and this was the first I actually shed tears over. I loved the main character and the story of her life and marriage. The only down side was the kids. The 5 year old acted more like a 3 year old and did nothing but whine. The 12 year old ruined it for me. I have raised 5 kids and have 12 grandkids, and have NEVER seen a 12 year old so obnoxious and annoying. Almost quit twice just because of her character. However I hung in there and I’m so glad did. It’s worth the read/listen.

A compelling and book about love and sacrifice

I read a lot of negative reviews before starting this book. Many people didn't like the narrator. People thought the teenage daughter was a brat. Many emphasized there was a lot of crying in the book.

I don't usually purchase a book that had so many negative reviews, but because I have read and really liked Kristin Hannah's books such as The Nightingale and The Great Alone, I wanted to see for myself if I agreed with the negative reviewers. Because I don't want to miss anything, I slow down the reading of my audiobook to .8x.

I waited to dislike the narrator...but I never did. I thought she was fantastic.
I waited to find other negative qualities...but they were not there.

This is a story about a woman who had alcoholic and largely emotionally unavailable parents who found a new beginning, a new family, in joining the military when her parents died unexpectedly in her teens. She grew up in the military because it provided a secure, rules based life with a lot of support and many opportunities to succeed-and all these things were missing from her growing up. As a result, her self esteem improved enough to fall in love with a man who loved her. Coming from her family of origin, it is unusual for a young woman to be able to succeed in either love or work, The military career she developed helped give her enough emotional sustenance to become able to love and start a family.

The book focuses on her marriage. The author shows how a young woman from a chaotic home, held herself together with a lot of denial and tried to become a happy person, although deep within her there were emotional weaknesses that would only show up when something devastating happened.

The sacrifice that members of our military make in becoming warriors and being sent to battlefields, is difficult for Americans who are not from military families to fully comprehend. This book helped me understand this about our warriors and left me feeling incredibly grateful to all the men and women who serve our country in war.

You can even be against war in general, or against the war in Iraq in particular, and still feel completely empathic with the toll that the war took on our brave main character. The main character goes through something very devastating, and yes, the book is truly painful in parts.

There is no getting around grief. It is there, and the book helps you witness how grief can be complicated by feelings of guilt, and lead to a feeling of being totally shattered emotionally and physically.

The shattering of this woman's psyche, while trying to hold herself to military standards and bear the burden of pain alone was beautifully portrayed by Kristin Hannah.

In addition the book is about the human capacity for resilience in the face of terrible grief and sadness, and the redemptive power of love.

The teenage or pre-teenaged daughter acts the way lots of pre-teens act in the face of stress: this daughter knows her mother and father are having marital problems before her mother deploys for Iraq, and when her mother comes home devastated, this daughter does not have a clue how to cope with her own and her mother's pain. But it is understandable that she has no clue how to cope, as her mother and father didn't talk about feelings and help the daughter understand her own feelings.

A child of alcoholic parents usually doesn't have words for feelings, because it is the nature of the disease of alcoholism, that alcoholics don't have words for feelings, can't bear painful feelings, and start drinking at an early age to cope with the feelings they can't put into words. So this woman had two children of her own, and prior to her deployment, just never talked much about her feelings to them, or helped them talk about their feelings. Naturally a pre-teen in this situation is going to behave in ways that seem bratty, but the daughter is angry that her mother left. Period. At age 12 you need your mom!

All I can say is this book was a wonderful portrait of a heroine, and yet it was a portrait of a woman who struggles with terrible emotional pain. This happens to us all in life at some point. I don't think anyone alive goes through life without having some very painful period or periods. The beautiful thing about this book is that it showed that help for PTSD is available, and it gave a very balanced and nuanced view of how therapy can actually help. How many books are written this beautifully and also show how psychotherapeutic help can make the difference between a life lost to substance use and emotional mastery?

I empathize with the reviewers who found the book painful. It was. But it was so well-written that if you have the courage to tolerate the painful parts, you will come away with the feeling of having read a great book about what really matters in life, and about the healing powers that dwell in the human heart.

Authenticity

Author really captured the essence of the reality of a female army pilot and challenges before, during and after a war.

Very touching

I enjoyed listening to a book where I felt. It’s so close to my heart. It had a really good moral and at times was very intense. Had a beautiful outcome!

Amazing story line

As usual, the storyline was absolutely amazing. As usual, it was very well written, and obviously thoroughly researched. I really could not stand the oldest child. But all the other characters were lovable, even if they’re worst. The narration was decent, but the beginning she sounded way too breathless, and that was slightly annoying. But as the book progress, I felt like she found her place and from that point on it was an easy listen. Super happy that she brought to light the PTSD issue. I hope maybe it will make some of the readers understand their loved ones past and present and hopefully not future coming home from battle. Because these should be our heroes, and she represented them amazingly

great story, if you can get past the narration

the narration was sometimes painful, especially the children's voices. but overall a really good story with great message.

Bestl audio book

Would you consider the audio edition of Home Front to be better than the print version?

Yes, it is just done to perfection!

What did you like best about this story?

The life of a woman helicopter pilot and her best friend who left family back home and had to go off to Iraq and suffer then return to home life again and not feel like sshe fits in and has terrible nightmares about what happened to her in Iraq and her marriage and family back home!!!

Have you listened to any of Maggi-Meg Reed’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No I have not but I shall get more after listening to this!!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

yes, many times, I cried and cried it is all so true! The author Kristin Hannah is now my favorite and I shall now get and listen to all her books.

Any additional comments?

I just could not put this audio book down...almost 15 hours and was just spellbound by it and all the information and reseach the author put into this book. She is outstanding!...