American women - American wives - have been mostly minor characters in the literature of the Vietnam War, but in Absolution they take center stage. Tricia is a shy newlywed, married to a rising attorney on loan to navy intelligence. Charlene is a practiced corporate spouse and mother of three, a beauty and a bully. In Saigon in 1963, the two women form a wary alliance as they balance the era's mandate to be "helpmeets" to their ambitious husbands...

"When her new husband joins an elite Army unit, Simone Gorrindo is uprooted from New York City and dropped into Columbus, Georgia -- a town so foreign she might as well have landed on the moon. With her husband frequently deployed, Simone is left to find her place in this new world, alone -- until she meets the wives. Gorrindo gives us an intimate look into the inner lives of a remarkable group of women and a tender, unflinching portrait of a marriage....

"Brye is a mom to four military officers, and for more than a decade she's endured countless teary goodbyes, sparse communication from boot camps and training summers, deployments, emotional airport reunions, empty chairs at Thanksgiving dinners, and sleepless hours waiting for phone calls in the night. She's navigated the complicated tangle of emotions--pride, worry, fear, hope, and deep, enduring love--that accompanies life as a military mom. In...

The true story of the fierce band of women who battled Washington, and Hanoi, to bring their husbands home from the jungles of Vietnam. On February 12, 1973, one hundred and sixteen men who, just six years earlier, had been high flying Navy and Air Force pilots, shuffled, limped, or were carried off a huge military transport plane at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. These American servicemen had endured years of brutal torture, kept shackled and...

"When she is only six years old, Allegra Dixon's party-loving mother leaves without so much as a goodbye. Her father, an emotionally distant military officer, is also unable--or unwilling--to care for her. Sent to live like a ghost in her grandparents' joyless home, Allegra finds her only solace through an escape into books. Attending boarding school, life finally takes a turn when she meets a dashing young West Point cadet named Shep Williams. Soon...