Since You Went Away: Part One: Winter : Rainwater Press : 9781888354126 : 1888354127 : 01 Apr 2017 : Set against the backdrop of the Iraq war in the year 2008, Since You Went Away portrays in intimate detail the effects of a distant war on the families and returning veterans at home. With an undercurrent of suspense, it is a fly-on-the-wall account of the innermost workings of a military family--their fears and hopes, their struggles and disappointments, their unexpected moments of joy and comfort and laughter. When her husband Liam leaves on a year-long deployment, Emilie Mahoney strives to be a source of strength for Liam and their two sons. Yet she doesn't always succeed. Holding down a full-time job, raising two teenage boys, and running a household with a menagerie of pets--all while hosting an Iraqi combat interpreter who comes to live with them as he acclimates to life in the U.S.--Emilie frequently finds herself retreating to her bedroom with a Party Size bag of Lay's to watch