Goddard College alum Cara Hoffman’s latest book, Be Safe I Love You  is a breathtaking thriller about a returning female veteran, set in upstate New York. The Sunday Telegraph (UK) called it: “One of the Five Best Modern War Novels.”
When Lauren Clay arrives home from her tour of duty in Iraq, it is clear to many who know her that something is wrong. But her father and her old boyfriend are both so happy to have her home that they ignore her odd behavior and the repeated phone calls from an army psychologist. Lauren attempts to return to civilian life, and to being responsible for her family, the reason she enlisted in the first place. But the war is far from over for Lauren, in one of the few novels to tackle PTSD in returning female veterans.
From a writer whom The New York Times Book Review says, “writes with a restraint that makes poetry of pain; Be Safe I Love You is a novel about war and homecoming, love and duty, and an impassioned look at the effects of war on women soldiers and caregivers, both at home and on the front lines.”“She was either never or always afraid… She knew now that the difference between never and always was small. Never and always are separated by a wasp’s waist, a small sliver of safety glass, one bead of sweat; separated by the seven seconds it takes to exhale the air from your lungs, to make your body as still as the corpse you are about to create.”
― Cara Hoffman, Be Safe I Love You
Cara Hoffman will be a Visiting Alum at the Spring 2016 Port Townsend MFAW Residency… For more about Cara, visit her website: carahoffman.com
And have you read… is a new feature we are thinking about offering each week, on Thursdays. We will feature a published book by one of our alums or faculty members, often with a short interview or excerpt. Let us know what you think of this, and any ideas you have about how we might prioritize the books we post about.