Overview

After years of flirting in the baseball dugout of their small South Dakota town, denying to friends and family anything beyond a friendship, Amber-now home from her college study abroad in Mexico-and Blake-newly committed to military service-reunite, and finally confess their true feelings for one another. Later, their love and marriage are tested by Blake's deployment to Iraq during Amber's first pregnancy, and by the changes in Blake after his return and reintegration, his subsequent battle with chronic pain, and the slow-burning challenges of married life. Through it all, Amber and Blake draw on their deep commitment to each other and to the legacy of family in a discovery of what to let go of and what to hold on to. Clinging to memories of baseball and hunting, family traditions, and to each other, Amber and Blake learn to discard expectations and Midwestern reticence, and to find comfort in silence while also asking the difficult questions they hope will keep their love alive.

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Reviews

In a lush and lyrical voice, Jensen narrates the birth of her family amid the backdrop of her husband's deployment to Iraq. When he returns, we learn that even clear discernment can be complicated by war, family ghosts, and the stitching together of lives. Set in South Dakota, Jensen resists the easy reading of rural America that so many rush to give, extending this love story to a place and its people . . . The Smoke of You shows us how to navigate the roads we expect, the detours we don't, and where to seek shelter along the way. -Christine Stewart-Nunez, South Dakota Poet Laureate (2019-2021), author of The Poet and the Architect, South Dakota in Poems: An Anthology, and others Told with searing honesty, clear-eyed perception, and empathy . . . a brave unlayering of what it means to love someone who carries both physical and emotional pain. The Smoke of You explores the heavy weight of worry that all spouses to veterans quietly bear, and it asks hard questions about how our nation cares for our veterans. This is necessary reading. It helps us to understand the long shadow of war, and the cost that is still being paid by many. -Patrick Hicks, author of The Commandant of Lubizec and In the Shadow of Dora

"""In a lush and lyrical voice, Jensen narrates the birth of her family amid the backdrop of her husband's deployment to Iraq. When he returns, we learn that even clear discernment can be complicated by war, family ghosts, and the stitching together of lives. Set in South Dakota, Jensen resists the easy reading of rural America that so many rush to give, extending this love story to a place and its people . . . The Smoke of You shows us how to navigate the roads we expect, the detours we don't, and where to seek shelter along the way."" -Christine Stewart-Nuñez, South Dakota Poet Laureate (2019-2021), author of The Poet and the Architect, South Dakota in Poems: An Anthology, and others ""Told with searing honesty, clear-eyed perception, and empathy . . . a brave unlayering of what it means to love someone who carries both physical and emotional pain. The Smoke of You explores the heavy weight of worry that all spouses to veterans quietly bear, and it asks hard questions about how our nation cares for our veterans. This is necessary reading. It helps us to understand the long shadow of war, and the cost that is still being paid by many."" -Patrick Hicks, author of The Commandant of Lubizec and In the Shadow of Dora"

Author Information

Amber Jensen teaches courses in writing and literature at South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota. Her work has been widely published in literary journals and anthologies to include Oakwood, North Dakota Quarterly, O-Dark-Thirty, and Red, White, & True: Stories from Veterans and Families, WWII to Present. The Smoke of You is her first book.

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