Fire Exit: A Novel

ISBN: 1959030558

Author: Talty, Morgan

Condition: New

Longlisted for the Center For Fiction 2024 First Novel PrizeRemarkable.-NPRSpellbinding-TIME, A Best Book of SummerUtterly consuming. . . . Fire Exit absolutely smolders.-Tommy OrangeFrom the award-winning author of Night of the Living Rez, comes a masterful and unforgettable story of family, legacy, bloodlines, culture and inheritance, and what, if anything, we owe one another. From the porch of his home, Charles Lamosway has watched the life he might have had unfold across the river on Maines Penobscot Reservation. He caught brief moments of his neighbor Elizabeths life-from the day she came home from the hospital to her early twenties. But theres something deeper and more dangerous than the river that divides him from her and the rest of the tribal community. Its the secret that Elizabeth is his daughter, a secret Charles is no longer willing to keep.Now, its been weeks since hes seen Elizabeth, and Charles is worried. As he attempts to hold on to and care for what he can-his home and property; his alcoholic and bighearted friend Bobby; and his mother, Louise, who is slipping deeper into dementia-he becomes increasingly haunted by his past. Forced to confront a lost childhood on the reservation, a love affair cut short, and the death of his beloved stepfather, Fredrick, Charles contends with questions hes long been afraid to ask. Is his secret about Elizabeth his to share? And would his daughter want to know the truth, even if it could cost her everything shes ever known?