For as far back as anyone could remember, few families in the town of Menschville, Pennsylvania were more well regarded than the Paines. Tracing their lineage back to colonial times, the Paine family had for centuries been known as well educated, industrious, charitable, and, perhaps most of all, heroic, participating in nearly every American conflict since the revolutionary war. The Paines were a testament to the patriotism, class, and affluence of the American dream.  

But while tales of their storied heroics loomed large in hearts and minds across Menschville, behind closed doors, the fog of war loomed even larger among the Paines themselves where generations of tragedy, pain, and secrecy had left them intimately familiar with the true costs of war.  

Spanning over 200 years of American military history, “The Wars Among the Paines” (Koehler Books, September 30, 2020), tells the complex story of a family defined by war, accounting in vivid detail its toll in blood, treasure, and emotional turmoil. Nearly 50 years in the making, “The Wars Among the Paines” is the debut novel by Vietnam veteran John M. Millar, who tells a story that illustrates how the consequences of America's foreign wars escape the boundaries of the front lines, and ripple through generations of families, friends, politics, and the lives of we the people.