Siobhan Fallon's "You Know When the Men Are Gone" book review

Being a two-time deployment survivor, when I finished reading, You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon, had hit close to home. I was privileged to snag a copy of the collection before it hits the public on January 20. I honestly could not put the book down!


The fictional collection of stories center around Army base, Fort Hood, Texas. There are seven stories all together, with the characters intertwined throughout the book; each spouse has their own doubts, struggles, and strengths as they endure a long 12-month deployment. Amazingly, Fallon has caught the lives of military members in a shed of light that has allowed her readers to enter the mysterious world of the Army life behind closed gates.

Fallon showed that military spouses might share the same deployment, but every journey will be different, and no one will leave unaffected.

Even though this collection was geared toward the Army lifestyle, I feel that it will reach out to all military spouses from every branch of service.