American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.73 (513 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 152007588X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 259 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-10-06 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Monica Hesse is a feature writer for the Washington Post. She lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with her two quirky children. A voice-over artist and audiobook narrator for over ten years, she has also been a writer for as long as she can remember. A finalist for a Livingston and James Beard Award, she is also the author of Girl in the Blue Coat. in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine. She lives in Washington, DC.Tanya Eby has a B.A. in English language and lite
Hesse can do with a handful of words what other writers do with paragraphs, and as she traces the intersecting paths of the amateur arsonists and the authorities determined to capture them, she reveals that every crime has its own personal, sometimes inscrutable DNA. When Smith and Bundick set fire after fire—sometimes several a night—the exhausted volunteer firefighters in Accomack County band together to stop the arsonists putting a match to their way of life. --Adrian Liang, The Book Review. An Best Book of July 2017: A passionate love affair is often described as an “inferno,” but in 2012 and 2013, boyfriend and girlfriend Charlie Smith and Tonya Bundick turned the meta
"Compelling story, worth reading twice" according to Andrew Bradway. This is a stunning book. I read it (rather, I swallowed it) in three marathon sittings. The story is captivating, unfolding a troubling and urgent mystery in a once-proud region now become a backwater. It's a page-turner. But the keen insights about this county and its people, coupled with an engaging style, are what push th. True crime at its best! Lots of research went into this one! Holds your interest!!. Five Stars Geoffrey Brymer Great
Through her depiction of the dangerous shift that happened in their passionate relationship, Hesse brilliantly brings to life the once-thriving coastal community and its distressed inhabitants, who had already been decimated by a punishing economy before they were terrified by a string of fires they could not explain. Incorporating this drama into the long-overlooked history of arson in the United States, American Fire re-creates the anguished nights that this quiet county spent lit up in flames, mesmerizingly evoking a microcosm of rural America - a land half gutted before the fires even began.. Shocked by a five-month arson spree that left rural Virginia reeling, Washington Post reporter Monica Hesse drove down to Accomack County to cover the trial of Charlie Smith, who pled guilty to sixty-seven counts of arson. But Charlie wasn't lighting fires alone: he had an accomplice, his girlfriend Tonya Bundick