Fallout - by Liz Kay (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Set in 1985 at an Army outpost in Mannheim, Germany, this addictive and enthralling novel follows three military families as the dangers and secrets within their homes rival those without.

For the military families who live in Benjamin Franklin Village, family life isn't just family life, but a vital front in the Cold War. It's a patriotic act, a performance of the American Way. They have backyard cookouts and go to high school football games and try to live like they aren't in a perpetual state of almost-war. They smile outwardly, join social clubs, and hide the unhappiness that goes on behind closed doors. That is, until the Vaughns arrive. Still reeling from the loss of her mother, sixteen-year-old Samantha Vaughn is a wild child looking for trouble, but when she finds it, her father's rank means she's the only kid who won't pay some kind of price for it. When her social circle shrinks overnight to prissy but pretty Becky Jennings and surly, anti-social David Williams, the frictions between the three of them turn to dangers that none of them recognize. For the women, sturdy, seasoned Army wives Madge Williams and Abby Jennings, Colonel Vaughn's second wife, Joanne, pulls them out of their '50s-era military culture and into the modern age. As a newly liberated Madge pushes at the boundaries of an unhappy marriage and Abby struggles to find her place in their changing friendship, Abby's tight grip on old loyalties keep her from recognizing the threats circling her own family and her friend's. And when a mysterious package is left on the front step of one of their homes, someone won't survive the explosive fallout.

Review Quotes

"Fallout, Liz Kay's masterful novel about American military families stationed overseas, is a literary high-wire act. Blending propulsive pacing, vivid period detail, and richly complex characters, Kay explores the big questions: war and peace, loyalty and betrayal, friendship, motherhood, and what it means to serve. Beautifully conceived and perfectly executed, Kay illustrates that the conflicts we face at home are often as wrenching, as relentless, and occasionally as deadly, as the battles we fight on the front."
--Jillian Medoff, author of When We Were Bright and Beautiful, This Could Hurt, I Couldn't Love You More, and other novels.

"Liz Kay hits it out of the park with her novel Fallout. A combination of a coming-of-age novel and women at life-stage crossroads, Kay once again creates characters readers will care about and identify with. It also takes place at the end of the Cold War on an American base in West Germany, where the fear of nuclear war is a reality. She captures the cultural moment perfectly. Her prose propels you to keep turning the page; you need to know what happens next. I read Fallout in two sittings--I love the way Liz Kay writes and can't wait to put this book in my customers' hands."
--Kathleen Caldwell, owner of A Great Good Place for Books.

About the Author

The daughter of an Army officer (and nuclear security expert), Liz Kay grew up in Mannheim, Wiesbaden, and a handful of other less interesting postings across the US. She holds an MFA from the University of Nebraska, where she was the recipient of both an Academy of American Poets Prize and the Wendy Fort Foundation Prize for exemplary work in poetry. Her poems have appeared in such journals as Beloit Poetry Journal, RHINO, Nimrod, Willow Springs, New York Quarterly, Iron Horse Literary Review, Redactions, and Sugar House Review. She is the author of Something to Help Me Sleep (dancing girl press), The Witch Tells the Story and Makes It True (Quarter Press), and Monsters: A Love Story (G. P. Putnam's Sons). Liz lives in Omaha, Nebraska with her husband and three sons.