Shadowlands

“It’s funny, words fail me so often now, almost as though they’re embarrassed to be around me. I try to hoard words and phrases in my mind, like a squirrel gathering nuts for later, and then forgetting where they’re buried, or even what they are when I find them. Yet I look back at these entries in my diary and everything seems grand. No occluded thoughts or meandering non-sequiturs. It almost convinces me I’m completely together, as if my diary will become the stitching that holds everything in place. It’s easier than looking in the mirror and wondering what drain it is the best parts of me are swirling down.”

Two tours of Afghanistan have left Matt Graydon, 28, shattered by battle. Now he must return home to his family’s farm to care for his estranged mother Shirley, who is fighting her own war of early-onset Alzheimer’s. Yet while the struggle with their demons threatens to unravel them both, Matt and Shirley come to discover each other in a way they never could have imagined.

A commanding and emotionally volatile novel of war, fear, and love, Shadowlands is an enthralling and touching exploration of a man and his mother’s battle with their enemies, both known and unknown. Unpredictable and explosive, it is ultimately a story of strength and forgiveness.