Arenstam, a teacher and writer from Saco, recently completed the historical novel based on interviews and news stories written about Russell Warriner, a 68-year-old Vietnam veteran and Old Orchard Beach resident. “I initially met Russ to talk about a POW/MIA event in Old Orchard and work on a project for my graduate program, but I soon realized there was more to the story,” says Arenstam. “We ended up meeting weekly in his kitchen for more than a year.”
“Homecoming” is the result of hundreds of hours of interviews with Warriner and the men who served with him. The novel traces two American aviators assigned to the Aerial Rocket Artillery in Vietnam, where the margin between life and death is thin and mysterious. For 20-year-old helicopter crew chief Russell Warriner and co-pilot Bobby Connelly, a single mission in early 1968, as the thunderous Tet Offensive roars around them, forever links their lives. The mission draws on all their reserves of courage and strength, but will that be enough to bring them both home?
Jon Marcus, the former editor of “Boston Magazine,” says Arenstam’s new novel is “A meticulously researched look not at politics or strategy, but at the men who fought the war in Vietnam, whose stories we risk forgetting.”
Author David Arenstam is a faculty member at Thornton Academy in Saco, and recently earned a master's degree in journalism from Harvard University. He regularly contributes articles to local newspapers, magazines, and online media companies.
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Contact: Melanie Taylor Coombs, Adult Services Librarian
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