With achingly beautiful prose, Jody Hobbs Hesler explores mental illness and the devastating effects of suicide on family members left behind in her novel Without You Here (Flexible Press: 2024). Complicated family dynamics and a troubled marriage are also important themes that make this story set in the Virginia mountains unforgettable. The timeline shifts frequently […]
Read of the Month: “Without You Here” by Jody Hobbs Hesler
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Read of the Month Tagged With: Donna Meredith, Jody Hobbs Hesler, Without You Here
Focus on Mental Health: Donna Meredith Interviews Jody Hobbs Hesler, author of “Without You Here,” and Pat Spears, author of “Hotel Impala”
Introduction Recently I had the painful pleasure of reading two exceptionally fine novels that examine the effects of mentally unstable people on their families. In Jody Hesler’s Without You Here, a niece is haunted by her favorite aunt’s suicide, while Pat Spears’s Hotel Impala delivers a devastating portrait of two children confronting the chaos and […]
Filed Under: Author Profiles & Interviews Tagged With: Donna Meredith, homelessness, Hotel Impala, Jody Hobbs Hesler, mental illness, Pat Spears, suicide, unhoused, Without You Here