Sarah Ruiz-Grossman

With the emotional echoes of Little Fires Everywhere and the lush atmosphere of Disappearing Earth, a riveting debut novel in which a wildfire creeps toward Berkeley, California, igniting tensions as characters from all walks of life confront the injustices growing beneath the city's surface. As a wildfire threatens Berkeley, the city's inhabitants are forced to reckon with the cracks in the lives they've built. Abigail, a wealthy white woman, decides to throw a lavish birthday in a hillside mansion to raise money for the city's newest affordable housing project--and prove to her family that she's made something worthwhile of her life. Sunny, a construction worker who sleeps in a van along the bay's shore, is in the running for an apartment in the complex--but only if enough funds are raised at the party to subsidize low-income rentals. As the heat and smoke from the approaching blaze descend upon the town, tensions rise and residents--young and old, haves and have nots--confront the inequities laid bare, and the fragility of building a life in a world on fire. Alternating among a colorful cast of characters, A Fire So Wild is a timely, tautly paced novel that questions why when everything burns, not everyone is left with scars.

A Novel

A Fire So Wild

Lindsay

the incessant thought that there was another life for her, somewhere out there, if only she was brave enough to release this one.

“You can have both, you know. Build affordable housing and not wreck the sacred sites of the people whose land you stole.”

And sometimes, she hated herself for being so hard on him. But was it really hard on him, or soft on herself, when she set a boundary and didn’t let it come down?

“Audre Lorde,” Jo said. “‘ The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.’”

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