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What people are satying about Without You Here:

“Original, complex, deftly scripted, emotionally engaging, and a compelling read from start to finish, "Without You Here" by Jody Hobbs Hesler will hold immense appeal for readers with an interest in medical and psychological suspense novels. A fascinating story raised by its author to an impressive level of literary excellence, this paperback edition of "Without You Here" from Flexible Press is especially and unreservedly recommended for community library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections.”—Midwest Book Review

“Jody Hobbs Hesler’s affecting novel is enlightening and tragic, unfurling truths about the effects of trauma on characters with such a depth of understanding they feel more than fictional. We follow Noreen from a childhood full of fantasy to an adulthood fraught with confusion in which the search for clarity both factual and emotional is a seemingly impossible journey. Exquisitely written, this is a debut with precise maturity, a necessary and timely story.”—Louise Marburg, author of You Have Reached Your Destination

“With skill and heart, Jody Hobbs Hesler captures the way memory weaves itself inextricably through the present. Readers will root for Noreen as generational trauma, sometimes in a whisper and sometimes in a scream, pushes her toward the glimmer of a different life. I loved this novel.”—Paulette Livers, author of Cementville, winner of Elle magazine Lettres Prize

“An event occurs in a child’s life that sears into her body and brain. She loses the one she loves most, who is also the person she fears she’ll become. Jody Hobbs Hesler shuffles the past and present to mimic the fluidity of memory in this heartfelt, redemptive, and compassionate novel.”—Sharon Harrigan, author of the novel Half and the memoir Playing with Dynamite

“Can a niece inherit the mental illness of her adored aunt, along with her passions and gloriously unruly hair? Like a double helix tracing the lives and shared struggles of Noreen and Nonie, Without You Here is as intricately composed as it is deeply moving.”—Jane Alison author of Meander, Spiral, Explode; The Sisters Antipodes

“Jody Hobbs Hesler’s Without You Here captures so poignantly the loneliness of women misunderstood by the people closest to them. Hesler is acutely alert to the moments of care, neglect, and control that weave the texture of family life, and she is full of empathy for the hard choices people make in order to break free from the lives that are breaking them. Without You Here is a moving and tender debut novel.”—Julia Ridley Smith, author of Sex Romp Gone Wrong and The Sum of Trifles

“Jody Hobbs Hesler’s heartbreaking and compelling novel Without You Here excavates the years that lead up to a tragic event and that follow from it, asking key questions: Can we escape the fate that others imagine for us? What happens when attempts to save ourselves from the past entrap us in the present? Hobbs Hesler writes with nuance and beauty about mental illness and resilience, family and friendship and love, about characters who are so much more than a diagnosis. She is a masterful storyteller, both honest and hopeful.”—Lori Ostlund, author of After the Parade and The Bigness of the World, and editor for the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction