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    Home Front: A Novel
    Home Front: A Novel
    Home Front: A Novel
    Audiobook (abridged)7 hours

    Home Front: A Novel

    Written by Kristin Hannah

    Narrated by Maggi-Meg Reed

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    "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)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateJan 31, 2012
    ISBN9781427215598
    Author

    Kristin Hannah

    Kristin Hannah is an award-winning international number one bestselling author with over 25 million copies of her books sold worldwide. Her most recent titles, The Four Winds, The Nightingale and The Great Alone won numerous best fiction awards and her earlier novel, Firefly Lane, is currently a bestselling series on Netflix. Kristin is a lawyer-turned-writer and is the mother of one son. She and her husband live in the Pacific Northwest near Seattle.

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    Reviews for Home Front

    4/5

    623 ratings67 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I’m not from a military family and know few people who serve so this was a very enlightening story. The author never disappoints! Unfortunately, I struggled to finish the book because side the reader was very difficult to listen to. So many different voices, the dramatic scenes were often sounded childish and overdone. I’ve listened to LONG novels read by Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep was were impossible to stop listening to—no weird voices or overly dramatic reading. I hate to be critical, but wanted to be honest in my comments.
    • 1/5
      Missing huge chunks of the book!! Read this elsewhere! I’m so bummed I have to start over.
    • 5/5
      I wasn't sure I was going to like this one, but as with all of the authors books I have read each one is better than the last. She has a gift with character development and pacing the plot just right. This book tells the story of a female Black Hawk pilot who is deployed and must leave her family. Told from the points of view of her husband and herself, the story takes us through how war impacts not only those who are deployed but also those left behind.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed this book. Laughed and cried. Another good heart felt book.
    • 1/5
      Terrible quality audio with major chunks of the book missing and portions of what sounds like fast forwarding and skipping. Who approved this?!
    • 5/5
      I’m my eye she does not wrong 5 stars I love this
    • 1/5
      Missing a lot of the book. I was listening and reading it….realized so much of the book was omitted from the audio.
    • 3/5
      Picked up the physical book part way through. The audiobook is missing chunks of the text.

      5⭐️ book though
    • 5/5
      Great story that helped my understand PTSD much better. I liked the interview with the author at the end.
    • 1/5
      The worst book I read for this author and the worst narration!
    • 4/5
      Good message. Not my favorite Kristin Hannah book but worth the read.
    • 5/5
      Loved the story. Lulu was a little irritating though. Worth the listen
    • 5/5
      so unbearably sad and raw, an excellent story to listen to
    • 4/5
      Jolene and Michael are a ‘normal’ couple with two kids, a lovely home… and a crumbling marriage. The distance between them seems to be becoming unsurmountable and Michael caves one day and says he doesn’t love Jolene anymore. A hard statement to overcome at the best of times but when your wife is suddenly called to active service and you haven’t retracted it, what comes next can only be agonising for both parties. Thus begins a novel that is beset with struggles. For Jolene as she faces fear, loss and displacement, mourning the loss of friends and colleagues at the same time as she fears her marriage is over and her children’s resentment and confusion is unsurmountable. For Michael as he struggles with life alone with the children and the guilt over his cruel announcement. For the children as they live in fear and confusion over their mother’s absence.Sometimes the greatest thing about receiving review copies unexpectedly is that you get a book you would never have picked up under any other circumstances and find you really enjoy it. I didn’t think Home Front was necessarily for me from the blurb but by the second chapter I knew I could settle into it. This is an excellent story with many facets, delving into the intricacies of relationships but also raising more specific points, such as the pressures on military families, coping with time away from home, injury, bereavement. The novel also skims over PTSD, as Michael (who is a lawyer) becomes involved in defending a soldier who is accused of murdering his young wife.This is a very compelling and emotive read, which kept me turning the pages. It’s thought-provoking and well written, all characters displaying emotional strengths and weaknesses that make them – and their struggles – seem very realistic. Kristin Hannah has produced an excellent novel here and should be applauded for raising some difficult issues in such a sensitive and insightful way.**Review originally published on Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dave. I received a copy of the book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I did not receive any additional compensation and all views are my own.**
    • 3/5
      This story has a lot of potential and it’s an easy quick listen. The story telling just was just too simple and it deserved much more detail.
    • 5/5
      As always Kristin Hanna is compelling and touches all our true feelings ... thank you??
    • 5/5
      Being from a military family and knowing the hardships one faced it really touched base with me. Beautifully told and related to the characters.
    • 5/5
      An awe-inspiring yet heartbreaking story that, thankfully, ends in a hopeful way. Many tears!!
    • 1/5
      Book on CD read by Maggi-Meg ReedJolene Zakardes is a wife and mother and a helicopter pilot in the National Guard. She also carries the baggage of her early life with two alcoholic parents. It was their deaths, a few months before she graduated from high school, that led her to join the Guard; alone and without resources she found a “home” and a “family” in her unit. Her best friend, Tami Flynn, is a fellow pilot, and her next-door neighbor. Jolene prides herself on creating a calm, loving and organized home for her family. She never raises her voice, because she knows how damaging discord and chaos can be for children. When her attorney husband, Michael, misses important events she makes excuses for him to assuage her daughter’s disappointment (not to mention her own). And she turns to Tami to talk about the things that worry and concern her. But her carefully orchestrated life is turned upside down when her unit is deployed and the two women are sent to Iraq. “We won’t be in battle,” she assures her family. “I’ll be flying VIPs from place to place.” Hannah is somewhat like Jodi Picoult in that she picks issues to address in her books that might be in the public’s eye, and which could lead to serious discussion. This time she’s focusing on PTSD in veterans. However, Hannah relies on emotional manipulation to tell her stories, and that just makes me roll my eyes. And no matter what issue she’s addressing, her plotting is pretty formulaic. Maggi-Meg Reed does a pretty good job of reading the audio version. Her diction is clear and she really nails the “whiny tween” voice of Jolene’s older daughter. Too bad she didn’t have better material to work with.
    • 4/5
      A bit of a hard read, likely because of the war in Europe now. Jolene is a married guard helicopter pilot and 2 daughters. When she's deployed to Iraq with her best friend and fellow pilot, Tami, hubby Michael needs to step up to the plate quickly. Balancing Jo's story, is Michael defending a vet who killed his wife during a PTSD flashback. Of course, a kindly psychiatrist is involved in the case, which also helps Michael understand his wife quite a bit better, because things are very rocky when she gets back wounded when her Black Hawk was shot down.
    • 4/5
      Jolene and Michael have to face the every day pressures of married life-careers, children, bills, and chores-even as their 12 year marriage falls apart. Then a deployment sends Jolene to Iraq where a horrific event sends Jolene home to face the even harder part of war: her return- when those she fought with and cared for throughout her Army career are taken.
    • 3/5
      I wanted to give this book a 3.5. It was not as good as her other novels but an enjoyable read.
    • 5/5
      Excellent, but I cried a lot. Paints a good portrait of what military families face, especially when the soldier is deployed. Excellent that it looked closely at what it means to have a family member (a mother) deployed. Once started, hard to put down.
    • 4/5
      Have tissues handy when you read this.
    • 4/5
      Great story! Everyone should read this... it was eye opening!
    • 5/5
      Excdllent and very moving. One of her best novels
    • 5/5
      Excellent book about a women who goes off to war and her unsupportive husband has to stay home and take care of the house and kids. He comes to realize what his wife means to him and the sacrifice she is making and how much he misses her. She ends of getting seriously injured and he stays by her side to help her heal.
    • 5/5
      Home Front is a stunning, intimate tour of duty in the life of an Army Reservists Jolene and her best friend and neighbor Tami. The story details their struggle to serve their families and their country, while they endure with dignity the costs of their service. The horror and isolation of serving in a war zone feels palpable in this story. The emotional battle in the lives of these soldiers rages on two fronts, the war zone and the home front.
    • 4/5
      Another wonderful book by Ms. Hannah. Realistic characters in an enthralling story.
    • 5/5
      Oh, Kristin Hannah! How do you do it? This was another tear jerker so be prepared. I have read so many military romances/books over the last few years. It is very rare to find one that was following a women in the military and being deployed. This is a very raw look into War and what it can do to a family when a family member leaves and returns from War. It gives a look into the very real PTSD and the toll it can take after War. Overall, another home run from this author.