Publisher's Synopsis
One of Brooklyn magazine's 100 Books to Read for the Rest of 2016 One of Book Riot's 100 Must-Read New York City Novels "A remarkably authentic portrait, rich in memorable detail, with characters that come so vividly to life one forgets one is reading a novel . . . An impressive feat. Anyone Irish will face an uncanny recognition in these pages; everyone else will be enthralled meeting such captivating figures. Prepare to settle in." — Matthew Thomas, New York Times best-selling author of We Are Not Ourselves Firefighters walk boldly into battle against the most capricious of elements. Their daughters, mothers, sisters, and wives walk through the world with another kind of strength and another kind of sorrow, and no one knows that better than the women of the Keegan-O'Reilly clan. In Ashes of Fiery Weather, debut novelist Kathleen Donohoe takes us from famine-era Ireland to New York City a decade after 9/11, illuminating the passionate loves and tragic losses of six generations of women in a firefighting family. Here is a tour de force in the tradition of Let the Great World Spin. Exquisitely attuned to the language, humor, and history of her own firefighting family, Donohoe presents portraits of seven unforgettable characters—laying bare the many ways we search for each other, and the many ways we hope to be rescued. "A stunning and intimate portrayal of four generations of New York City firefighters . . . Extraordinary. Ashes of a Fiery Weather somehow manages to be part Alice McDermott, part Denis Leary, and ultimately a worthy addition to the canon of great New York ethnic novels." — Irish America.
