Published February 2, 2016 by Berkley
Thank you Lauren Burnstein,
publicist, from Berkley & NAL,
Penguin Random House a c opy of Casualities in exchange for an honest review.
A heartbreaking and insightful debut novel about the wars
we fight overseas, at home, and within our own hearts.
Some come back whole. Some come back broken. Some just never come back...
As an executive for one of the most successful military defense contractors in the country, Ruth Nolan should have been thrilled when her troubled son, Robbie, chose to join the marines. But she wasn’t. She was terrified.
So, when he returns home to San Diego after his second tour in Iraq, apparently unscathed, it feels like a chance to start over and make things right—until a scandal at work tears her away from their reunion. By the next morning, Robbie is gone. A note arrives for Ruth in the mail a few days later saying, “I’m sorry for everything. It’s not your fault. I love you.”
Without a backward glance, Ruth packs up Robbie’s ashes and drives east, heading away from her guilt and regret. But the closer she gets to the coast she was born on, the more evident it becomes that she won’t outrun her demons—eventually, she’ll have to face them and confront the painful truth about her past, her choices, the war, and her son.
My Thoughts…
I am intrigued by war and what it does to the people who
fight in it and the people who are left behind by those who fight. Casualties had both views. Robbie comes home from war troubled. He doesn’t come home to his mother instead
he puts off seeing her. Ruth misses
Robbie so much and just wants to see him.
When he finally comes home circumstances at her work make it impossible
for her to spend the time she wants with him.
Then Robbie is gone and Ruth is devastated.
Casualties is the story of how Ruth handles Robbie being
gone. She runs. She runs far and without leaving work with
her friends or co-workers. I felt for
Ruth. I am not sure that she handled
everything how she should have but how can she have known what would
happen? When she meets Casey I was
scared for her. He seemed creepy to
me. I could not trust him, I could not
believe that she would go with him, and I was really worried. As the story continued I could see how much
they needed each other. They both were
running from things, keeping secrets, and wrestling with the future.
I picked up Casualties and thought it was a book about Robbie
returning from war, yet it was more the story of his mother. It still showed what a difficult time a
family can have dealing with a war that loved ones are fighting.
Why you’ll care:
Marro explores the
challenging terrain of mother-child relationships, marked as they are with
hopes, missed opportunities, regrets, and in the end, the need for release and
acceptance. As a civilian exploring the world of the military and defense
industries, she often felt like she “did not have a right to go there.” But in
piecing together Ruth’s story, Marro was forced to move past that feeling of
“otherness,” and succeeds in offering a fresh perspective on the challenge of
moving forward—even when you are a casualty of circumstances. CASUALTIES was
a finalist for the 2014 San Diego Book Awards Association Contestunder the
category of unpublished novel.
What others are saying:
“Marro’s gorgeous debut is about war, grief, guilt, and
grappling with the truths you don't expect, and finally taking the risk and
acknowledging the ones that you do. Moving and full of heart.”—Caroline
Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Is This
Tomorrow and Pictures of You
“With its gripping plot and seasoned prose, it is hard to
imagine that Casualties is Elizabeth Marro’s debut
novel. She writes of a mother’s worst nightmare, and offers no easy
answers. By the end of her novel we care for her characters, and hope
that each can find the elusive redemption they so desire.”—Alan Russell,
bestselling author of Burning Man
“Conflicting human needs, difficult choices, missed
opportunities, and the random luck of the draw challenge the true-to-life,
complicated characters in Elizabeth Morro’s page-turning novel. This is an
important story set against the drama of today’s volatile world that asks moral
questions yet, ultimately, resides in the heart.” —Judy Reeves, Author
of Wild Women, Wild Voices
“There’s an emotional jolt early in the pages of Elizabeth
Marro’s debut novel Casualties that reminds us not all battle
scars start on the battlefield. The bell-like tolls of this tragic event will
reverberate throughout the rest of this heartbreaking novel as Ruth and Casey,
two strangers broken by grief and regret, reluctantly join together on a
cross-country road trip. Elizabeth Marro made me care about these two people so
much that by the end of the novel I’d forgotten they were fictional characters
and I was ready to call them up to see how they were doing and if they’d
finally found their way toward peace and forgiveness. That’s the mark of
some strong storytelling!”—David Abrams, author of Fobbit
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