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Rene Steinke invites us into the troubled psyche of Ella, a young woman torn by inner demons that drive her to pyromania and promiscuity, a woman as enthralled by flames as others are by love, a narrator so lucid in her madness as to raise The Fires to the level of high romance.
Badly scarred in a fire and stigmatized as a child, Ella, now twenty-two, lives in the small town of Porter, Indiana. She has recently dropped out of college to work as a clerk at the local hotel. Slowly, she begins to realize that she is entangled in a complicated web of secrets surrounding her father's death, her grandfather's suicide, her aunt's mysterious disappearance, her mother's descent into anorexia and depression, and her own tragic childhood accident.
As Ella struggles to come to terms with her family's tormented past and her own uncertain future, she draws the mesmerized reader ever deeper into her scorched soul, revealing a sensuality that will spiral into final, fiery destruction - unless it can be quenched by love.
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Previews available in: English
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First Sentence
"Smoke has as many different scents as skin."
Work Description
Smoke has as many different scents as skin. Part of the pleasure is not knowing what it will be — sulfurous or closer to incense or airier and sweeter as I imagine the smell of clouds.Ella is a connoisseur of fire, a woman enthralled by it as other women are by love. She savors the seductive promise of a spark, the caress of a curling wisp of smoke, the all-consuming hunger of a spreading blaze. Ella's heart seethes with a rage that can be spoken only with tongues of flame.In her remarkable first novel, Rene Steinke has created a narrator so lyrical and lucid in her madness as to raise the book to the level of romance. Trapped in a sleepy Indiana town, torn by inner demons that drive her to pyromania and promiscuity, Ella is at once entirely original and unforgettably real.As she struggles to come to terms with her family's tormented past and her own uncertain future, she draws the mesmerized reader ever deeper into her scorched soul, revealing a sensuality that will spiral into final, fiery destruction — unless it can be quenched by love.
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Feedback?December 27, 2021 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
July 22, 2019 | Edited by MARC Bot | remove fake subjects |
July 22, 2017 | Edited by Mek | adding subject: In library |
June 17, 2010 | Edited by ImportBot | add details from OverDrive |
December 9, 2009 | Created by WorkBot | add works page |