Alive Day

A Memoir

By: Karie Fugett

Narrated by: Karie Fugett

A searing, unflinchingly intimate memoir about one young couple caught up in the machinery of America’s military system, learning to live and love through war and all that comes after

“Astonishing . . . both a love story and a gripping account of the cost of war.”—Stephanie Land, bestselling author of Maid and Class

Karie Fugett is living out of her car in a Kmart parking lot when her boyfriend, Cleve, suggests, “Maybe we could get married or somethin’.” Karie says yes out of love but also out of convenience. As a twenty-year-old high school dropout who ran away from her family and recently lost her job, Karie has nowhere else to turn. Just months after they elope, Cleve’s Marine unit is deployed to Iraq. It isn’t long before Karie gets the call: Cleve’s Humvee has been hit by an IED, and he’s suffered severe injuries.

Karie rushes to Walter Reed, where she’s told it’s a miracle that her husband has survived. “Happy Alive Day, man,” a fellow vet says to Cleve, explaining that this will always be the day when he was given a second chance at life. Newlyweds barely out of their teens, Karie and Cleve are thrust into utterly foreign roles. Karie tries to adapt to her job as a caregiver, navigating the labyrinthine system of veterans affairs, hospital bureaucracies, and doctors who do little more than shrug when she raises concerns about Cleve’s dependency on painkillers. It is clear to Karie that Cleve is using opiates to dull a pain that is more than physical. She catches his first overdose, but what if she can’t save him a second time? Will she still be able to save herself?

Fugett’s story depicts an oft-overlooked reality of war: the experience of the many thousands of caregivers and spouses—mostly women, mostly young, mostly poor—whose lives have been shattered by battles fought against enemies abroad and against addiction at home. Tender, vivid, and laced with dark humor, Alive Day is at once an epic and engrossing love story, a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, and a powerful indictment of the sins of a nation.

©2025 Karie Fugett (P)2025 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Karie Fugett’s Alive Day is as true a war story as any I’ve read. Like war itself, it’ll break your heart.”—Elliot Ackerman, author of Uncertain Ground

“Karie Fugett’s voice sings with deliberate, horrific, powerful, beautiful knowing about war and the human toll it demands. Her words shine humanity on those of us who volunteered before we understood the actual cost, all while she stands before us an open wound, not begging for aid but demanding that we bear witness.”—Matt Young, author of Eat the Apple

“An essential, urgent reminder of the cost of war and a savage, gritty, and romantic monument to those who pay it . . . Karie Fugett’s memoir is deeply felt and disturbingly funny. I hope it pisses you off. We should be pissed off.”—Lauren Hough, author of Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing