Patrick Smithwick
Baltimore, MD
Award-Winning Author, Devoted Teacher, Legacy Equestrian
BOOK COVER
BOOK DETAILS
Pub Date: May 16, 2023
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Tide Pool Press
Page Count: 263, with photos
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-7367720-7-2
Price: $29.95
ABOUT THE BOOK
In War’s Over, Come Home, Patrick Smitwick brings the reader on a two-year quest through cities across the country for his son, Andrew, two-tour Marine veteran of the Iraq War, who is running away from war memories, nightmares, hallucinations, and those that love him. Smithwick’s relentless focus on the life of his homeless son is a microcosm of the national nightmare 50,000 homeless veterans and their families are living every day. Yet, Smithwick imbues every chapter with hope: hope for his son, hope for his marriage, hope for his country. This is a memoir of love, perseverance and hope.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Starting at the age of twelve, Smithwick began working with his father and mentor, the legendary steeplechase jockey, A.P. Smithwick. Patrick worked his way through college by exercising Thoroughbreds at the major East Coast racetrack and by competing in steeplechase races at Belmont Park, Monmouth Park and Saratoga, as well as at hunt meets, such as The Maryland Hunt Cup and the Grand National. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Johns Hopkins University in 1973 and a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from Hollins College in 1975. In 1988, he received a Master of Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University, and in 2000 his degree in Education for Ministry. A newspaper writer for several years, Patrick began teaching English, philosophy, photography, and journalism at both the high school and collegiate levels. In addition to his trilogy of memoirs–Racing My Father, Flying Change, and Racing Time–he has written The Art of Healing: Union Memorial Hospital and Gilman Voices, 1897-1997. Patrick lives with his wife Ansley, formerly the Associate Head of Oldfields School, on the Monkton horse farm where he was raised. In his latest book, War’s Over Come Home (TidePool Press, May 16, 2023), Patrick departs from the horse-centric themes and subjects of his Racing Trilogy and focuses on his family’s plight to reunite with his war veteran son, Andrew.
TALKING POINTS
- Veterans and Homelessness
- Veteran Suicide
- PTSD in Veterans
- The Effect of Veterans Returning from Duty on Family Relationships
- Managing Life and Business While Searching for a Missing Son
PRAISE
“Patrick Smithwick’s Sisyphean quest to find his son, a decorated two-tour Marine adrift in America and battling PTSD, takes him deep into the lives of the homeless, the lost, and the forgotten. Smithwick writes with devastating honesty about his harrowing and heartfelt journey to dark and tragic corners of the country, which puts himself and his loved ones at risk, while ultimately affirming the unbreakable bond of family. This intensely personal narrative is a call to action on behalf of veterans, twenty-two of whom commit suicide every day.”
-Richard Dresser, Award-winning playwright , author, screenwriting teacher, and president of the Writers Guild Initiative, which conducts writing workshops with veterans
“Patrick Smithwick’s wonderful books have always started from home—the beautiful terrain around Monkton, Maryland. He grew up the son and nephew of the steeple chasing Smithwick brothers, A. P. (“Paddy”) and Michael, and rode in the great Maryland Hunt Cup himself. Here he focuses on a family tragedy, the effect of two tours of duty in the Iraq War on his son Andrew, who returned with severe symptoms of PTSD and has lived as a wandering homeless man for most of the years since. The narrative of the family’s searches for Andrew has the intensity and suspense of a thriller. As Andrew’s troubles, distant as they are, gnaw at the family fabric, Smithwick handles the agreements and disagreements, the quarrels, his own and others’ occasional pettiness, with just the right level of clear-eyed depth. He is equally fair with the laws of privacy that sometimes prevent the family from finding out what they want to know, and the balance between their rights and Andrew’s is a central problem. No one who cares about the plight of today’s veterans should miss this splendid book.”
– Pulitzer Prize winning poet Henry Taylor, past co-director of the Master of Fine Arts program at American University, and author of the newly released This Tilted World Is Where I Live: New and Selected Poems 1962-2020.
BOOK DETAILS
Pub Date: February 7, 2023
Genre: Crime Mysteries / Suspense & Thriller
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Page Count: 272
Format: Hardcover, ebook
ISBN: 978-1-6391023-03
Price: $29.99
