1 of 1 copy available
Two families. One night. A constellation of lives changed forever.
A TIME Best Fiction Book of the Year • A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction • A Real Simple Best Book of the Year
An ancient majestic oak stands beneath the stars on Division Street. And under the tree sits Ben Wilf, a retired doctor, and ten-year-old Waldo Shenkman, a brilliant, lonely boy who is pointing out his favorite constellations. Waldo doesn’t realize it but he and Ben have met before. And they will again, and again. Across time and space, and shared destiny.
Division Street is full of secrets. An impulsive lie begets a secret—one which will forever haunt the Wilf family. And the Shenkmans, who move into the neighborhood many years later, bring secrets of their own.. Spanning fifty kaleidoscopic years, on a street—and in a galaxy—where stars collapse and stories collide, these two families become bound in ways they never could have imagined.
Urgent and compassionate, Signal Fires is a magical story for our times, a literary tour de force by a masterful storyteller at the height of her powers. A luminous meditation on family, memory, and the healing power of interconnectedness.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 18, 2022 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593610961
- File size: 216144 KB
- Duration: 07:30:17
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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August 8, 2022
Shapiro returns after the memoir Inheritance with a beautiful exploration of the connections between two families and the reverberations from a teenager’s lie. In 1985 Avalon, N.Y., 15-year-old Theo Wilf drives his 17-year-old sister Sarah and her friend Misty home after a night of partying. After he accidentally drops the car lighter down his shirt, he crashes the car into the tree in front of their house. Ben, Theo and Sarah’s surgeon father, rushes to save Misty’s life, but fails, and in an impulsive decision, Sarah tells Ben that she was driving. Then, in 1999, shortly after the Shenkman family moves in across the street, Ben helps deliver their infant, Waldo, during an emergency birth. Shapiro continues to jump around in time, unspooling the consequences of these two fateful nights “like so many wobbly tops set spinning.” As Theo becomes a chef and Sarah a screenwriter, both wrestle with their guilt, while Ben, who never really gets to know the Shenkmans, is left alone to deal with his wife’s dementia and develops a bond with Waldo in 2010. Shapiro imagines in luminous prose how each of the characters’ lives might have gone if things had turned out differently. It’s an intriguing meditation. Agent: Margaret Riley King, WME. -
June 10, 2024
Memoirist and novelist Shapiro (Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love; Black & White) sensitively narrates her latest, detailing the splintering of a family engulfed by trauma. In the summer of 1985, Sarah, age 17, has been drinking, so she tosses the keys to the family car to her 15-year-old brother Theo, who does not yet have a driver's license. Theo invites Misty Zimmerman, a girl he wants to impress, to ride with them. Driving too fast, Theo crashes into the large oak in the front yard of the Wilf family's home. Tragically, Misty dies. Skipping back and forth through the years before and after the tragedy, Shapiro describes the toll that the accident exacts on Sarah and Theo's family, as they keep the details secret but continue to be haunted by the aftermath. Shapiro is especially skilled at describing how the complex and well-developed characters cope differently with their deeply felt grief. VERDICT This novel, delving into the thoughts of the characters and reflecting on the bonds that connect all people, is an excellent fit for fans of Mary Beth Keane's Ask Again, Yes or Ethan Joella's A Little Hope.--Ilka Gordon
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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