Learning to Stay

Elise Sabato is proud of her husband, Brad, for serving his country...and grateful when he returns home to her. But the traumatic brain injury he suffered in Iraq has turned him from a thoughtful, brilliant, and patient man into someone quite different....someone who requires more care and attention than Elise can give while working in a demanding law firm. And when Brad ends up on his family’s farm, hundreds of miles away, she wonders where their marriage is headed.

Elise must decide between the life she always wanted and the life she seems to be living…until she finds inspiration in the most unlikely of places: a lovable dog named Jones who teaches her that when the best-laid plans take unexpected turns, sometimes you end up right where you were meant to be.

“As an army spouse, I am grateful for Erin Celello’s dedication to revealing ‘the hidden wounds of war’ and how they impact our military and their families.”

―Siobhan Fallon, author of You Know When the Men Are Gone

“What makes this gem of a novel so special is that it isn’t a book written for survivors or military audiences or any niche group; it is a universal and instructive tale of what it takes to dig down and find the good parts of a marriage, to fight not only for those you love but to be willing to make course corrections when life throws a curve ball through your picture perfect plans.”

―Lee Woodruff, author of Those We Love Most, a novel, and co-author with Bob Woodruff of the New York Times bestselling In an Instant, a memoir

“Erin Celello truly understands the human heart; the way we bend, the way we break, and especially the way we heal.”

―Erika Marks, author of The Mermaid Collector

“Learning to Stay is an important and inspiring novel―serving to remind us that for many soldiers and their loved ones war doesn’t end when battlefields go silent.”

―John Shors, bestselling author of Temple of a Thousand Faces

“Learning to Stay is a timely novel, but also a novel that speaks to the tides of any marriage, in peacetime or at war. Written with a present tense immediacy, Erin Celello’s novel portrays life after the welcome home signs are folded up and put away.”

―Joseph Monninger, author of Margaret from Maine

“Erin Celello has written a surprising and heartwarming look at what’s left in a marriage after post-traumatic stress has forced romance to take a hike, and what one perfect mutt can teach a besieged husband and wife about the heroics of loyalty and determination.”

—Jeanine Cummins, author of The Crooked Branch