Eleven Days: A Novel
by Lea Carpenter
Buy on AmazonA haunting narrative about a mother's bond with her son; about life choices; about the military, war, and service to one's country. Sara's son Jason is missing from a Special Operations Forces mission undertaken on the same night as the Bin Laden raid. As Sara waits for news, in a series of flashbacks we learn about Jason's absentee father, while through letters home from his training and early missions, we get a picture of Jason as a strong, compassionate leader who is wise beyond his years and modest about his abilities. Those exceptional abilities give Jason the chance to participate in a wholly different level of assignment, the most important and dangerous of his career.--
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"Lea Carpenter weaves the story of the love and respect between a mother and her grown son — despite the differences in many of their most fundamental beliefs — into a hard look at the painful realities of war in the second decade of the 21st century. Sara, a left-leaning single mother, is shocked when her son, Jason — spurred by the tragedy of Sept. 11 — becomes a Navy SEAL and is sent to Afghanistan. The 11 days of the title refer to the period between the time when Sara is notified that her beloved son is missing in action and the day that she discovers his fate. This is an uncommonly assured and graceful first novel; the characters are beautifully drawn, and the relationship between mother and son seems utterly true, recognizable, and understandable. As the voice-over for the TV show Law and Order might say, “This is a story ripped from the headlines.”"
NPR Books We Love — 2013 · apps.npr.org