*WINNER OF THE 2023 FRED KERNER BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION*
*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 TORONTO BOOK AWARDS*
*FINALIST FOR THE 2023 RAKUTEN KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE*
Grief is like an inside joke: you have to have been there to really get it.
Everything Cassandra Rampersad knows about her family history has been overheard: whispered behind a closed door or written in a notebook stowed away. Cassandra has always been curious, and when a death in the family means she has to return home to Toronto, it seems like the perfect opportunity to finally discover what it is that no one else will talk about.
But uncovering the past will never be easy when it has stayed hidden for so long. And with every new revelation, Cassandra realises that there is a reason that her family has never been good at grieving…
A powerful meditation on memory and loss, Wild Fires is a beautifully crafted novel from a stunning new literary voice.
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9780008380373
Number of pages: 320
Weight: 220 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 21 mm
‘A gem of a book: beautifully crafted, emotionally insightful, and full of sharply-drawn characters who linger long in the memory. Sophie is a literary star in the making’ LAURA BARNETT, #1 bestselling author of The Versions of Us ‘An incredibly intimate, tender story about grief, mourning, silences and secrets, loss, identity, love, sisters/mothers, and home… I'm hooked’ YVONNE BATTLE-FELTON, author of Remembered ‘I enjoyed it so much – one of my favourite things in literature is to be transported to a different place, ideally straight into the heart of a family whose history and characters are as alive while I’m reading as my own, and that was the experience that Wild Fires gave me. It reminded me of The God of Small Things, with the same intricate, confounding but completely relatable family relationships, secrets and darkness; I loved the rhythm of the language and the sharpness of the (often unexpectedly funny) observations … a beautiful book’ EMILY ITAMI, author of Fault Lines ‘A moving and compelling novel that explores a family's grief through both their shared stories and the words that should have stayed unspoken’ LOUISE HARE, author of This Lovely City ‘A dizzying, mesmerising puzzle of a novel… readers will find themselves so deeply invested and absorbed in this tale, and unable to forget it’ KERRY CLARE, author of Asking for a Friend There’s so much beauty in this book … I finished the last page with my eyes wet and my heart full’ DIANA FITZGERALD BRYDEN, author of No Place Strange
If you asked me what the plot of this book was, I wouldn't really be able to tell you. I have no idea what actually happened aside from the funeral which is the main plot point of Wild Fires.
But what I can say...
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Wild Fires by Sophie Jai is a striking and tender portrait of a family united and fractured by grief. When Cassandra receives a calling informing her of cousin Chevy’s death she flies to Toronto and returns to the... More
Wild Fires is a story of grief, it delves so deep into how grief and death effect everyone differently. I loved the character Cass, and I loved her mother. What a character her mother was! I did laugh out loud at a... More
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