title: Carry Me Home: A Novel
author:  Sandra Kring 
description: Earnestly narrated by brain-damaged 16-year-old Earl "Earwig" Gunderman ("Ma said that after the fever was gone, my brain was like meat cooked too long, and it just fell apart whenever I tried to learn something new"), Kring's heartfelt debut explores the effects of WWII on a smalltown Wisconsin family. Earwig, whose intellectual difficulties are balanced by his sharp emotional intelligence, gets a significant assist in the growing-up process from his older brother, Jimmy. But after enlisting in the National Guard on a drunken whim, Jimmy is shipped out with one of the first ill-equipped units to be sent to the Philippines. When his unit is overrun in Bataan, his fate is assumed to be grim. At home, Earwig sighs about rationing, discovers a dark family secret and hopes for Jimmy's safe return. And Jimmy does come home, but, shell-shocked after years as a POW, he drowns his sorrows in drink. It takes Earwig's devotion and a tender new relationship with young widow Eva Leigh to turn him around. Kring's narrative is familiar at first, but hits its stride after Jimmy's homecoming, capturing family tensions and the divisive town dynamics when Jimmy and his fellow soldiers criticize the government for abandoning them in Bataan. Strong characters, a clear community portrait and a memorable protagonist whose poignant fumblings cloak an innocent wisdom demonstrate Kring's promise. <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: **Table of Contents**
  
    
  
  CHAPTER 1
  
  CHAPTER 2
  
  CHAPTER 3
  
  CHAPTER 4
  
  CHAPTER 5
  
  CHAPTER 6
  
  CHAPTER 7
  
  CHAPTER 8
  
  CHAPTER 9
  
  CHAPTER 10
  
  CHAPTER 11
  
  CHAPTER 12
  
  CHAPTER 13
  
  CHAPTER 14
  
  CHAPTER 15
  
  CHAPTER 16
  
  CHAPTER 17
  
  CHAPTER 18
  
  CHAPTER 19
  
  CHAPTER 20
  
  CHAPTER 21
  
  CHAPTER 22
  
  CHAPTER 23
  
  CHAPTER 24
  
  CHAPTER 25
  
  CHAPTER 26
  
  CHAPTER 27
  
  CHAPTER 28
  
  CHAPTER 29
  
  CHAPTER 30
  
  CHAPTER 31
  
  CHAPTER 32
  
  CHAPTER 33
  
  CHAPTER 34
  
  CHAPTER 35
  
  CHAPTER 36
  
  CHAPTER 37
  
  CHAPTER 38
  
  CHAPTER 39
  
  CHAPTER 40
  
  CHAPTER 41
  
  CHAPTER 42
  
  CHAPTER 43
  
  CHAPTER 44
  
  CHAPTER 45
  
  EPILOGUE
  
  EPILOGUE
  
  EPILOGUE
  
  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  
  Also By Jessica Therrien
  
    
    
  
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  PRAISE FOR  
  
   _Carry Me Home_
  
    
  
  “ **CARRY ME HOME** is a beautifully crafted story of one family’s journey
  into darkness, and ultimate redemption. It’s also a riveting page-turner; I
  devoured it 