You Know When The Men Are Gone is a novel told in linked stories, which is currently my favorite literary form. Each story is a brilliant little gem in itself, and Siobhan Fallon has the unique ability to draw you into each one immediately and take you on a roller coaster of a ride until you're thoroughly engrossed. Then she puts on the brakes, leaving you gasping for breath. But, being a sucker for a well-told story, I could never linger too long: I'd just dive right into the next one.

The common thread in these stories is the waiting game played by soldiers and their families living in Fort Hood during the war in Iraq. Whether the story is told from a soldier's perspective, or that of his spouse and family waiting back home, Fallon is able to skillfully portray the tension, the desperation, and the sheer ache of deployment and separation. On the other hand, when the men finally return, there's a very intimate discomfort that takes place in reestablishing a normal family life, and this, at times, is gut-wrenching.

Two of the stories were particularly affecting for me. First, the story of a soldier who has a girlfriend back home, but begins to fall in love with a beautiful young interpreter, who then turns up missing. What do you do? How can your worry and desperation be public? Your suffering and anxiety must be kept to yourself. The second is of a soldier who is driving himself so crazy wondering if his wife is having an affair back home that he takes leave and spends it hiding in the basement of his own house, watching the comings and goings of his wife and daughter. Though I won't tell how this one ends, I can say that my heart was pounding just as hard as the soldier's!

I just can't express how these stories literally took my breath away. Fallon writes with such familiarity and passion. The result is not only an incredibly moving, but timely collection. -- Linda Grana