On the Way Home

When Michael Sumner was re­ported killed in action in Vietnam, his grieving parents decided to leave Chi­cago and try to start over in Florida. But then they learned that Michael was alive after all; he had escaped from the Vietcong and was coming home. 


But it was a different Michael Sumner who came to his parents' new home in Florida. His parents knew that something must be terri­bly wrong when he was kept in a hospital for a year before being allowed to return to the States. But nothing could have prepared them for the son who eventually arrived. 


Touching, shocking, and infinitely moving, On the Way Home is the story of the three Sumners: of Michael, who has been changed and hurt with terrifying thoroughness by the war; of his father, Dale, torn by love, con­fusion, and anger; and of his mother, Anne, in desperate pain for her son. Above all, it is the powerful, beauti­fully written story of a family learning to live together in the face of what they all know about each other—a stunning debut by an eloquent young writer.