It seems likely that most listeners to this podcast channel have heard of “shell shock,” the old name for what is now called post-traumatic stress disorder (usually abbreviated as PTSD). Even today, the long-term effects of combat tend to be under-estimated, but that was much more true in the years following World War I, when the diagnosis of “shell shock” first appeared.

Terri Lewis’s When They Came Home (Miami UP, 2026) tackles this problem head-on. Based on the lives of the author’s grandparents, this beautifully written, compassionate novella follows the war experiences and long-term effects of combat on not only the soldiers themselves but their families, forced to confront what to them often appears incomprehensible behavior that affects their loved ones’ ability to function in the post-war world.

The story focuses on Milton Fieth, a twenty-one-year-old farmer from Kansas who, like the other young men on his train, enlists out of a sense of duty to his country, hope of glory, and a free trip to France. The reality of the trenches horrifies him, and the loss of cherished comrades leaves him with massive survivor guilt for which he has no name. A year later, he’s back home, where he meets a young woman named Edith whom he courts and eventually marries. Only as the years turn into decades do both Milton and Edith realize that the scars left by those few horrific months will never heal completely.

Terri Lewis, a former ballerina, won the Miami University Press 2025 Novella award for When They Came Home. Her debut novel, Behold the Bird in Flight, appeared in 2025. Her interests lie with historical fiction—not dates or wars but untold stories of daily lives, particularly forgotten women. Find out more about her and her books at here.

C. P. Lesley is the author of two historical fiction series set during the childhood of Ivan the Terrible and four other novels, including one co-written with P.K. Adams. Her latest book, Song of the Silk Weaver, appeared in September 2026.

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Terri Lewis, "When They Came Home" (Miami UP, 2026)

New Books Network

Terri Lewis, "When They Came Home" (Miami UP, 2026)