Description
Book SynopsisAt age twenty, Ada’s reputation as a faith healer defines her in her rural Pennsylvania community. But on the day in 1953 that her family’s barn is consumed by flame, her identity is upended: for the first time, she fears death and doubts God.
Trade Review“Minick’s coming-of-age novel is poignant throughout. The supporting players are as caringly drawn as the protagonists.… A compassionate exploration of faith and doubt.” * Kirkus Reviews *
“
Fire Is Your Water is a most remarkable story of devotion, trust, healing, and misfortune—and of a skeptical raven misnamed Cicero. The personalities portrayed are of their time and place and yet before and beyond them. Minick vividly demonstrates how daily experience transcends itself. And it’s a genuine love story, the best kind of story there is.”
“The award-winning essayist/memoirist Minick (
Blueberry Years) has crafted an outstanding first novel full of appealing characters and an inventive plot based on true events. This belongs at the top of every spring reading list.” * Library Journal starred review *
“Compassionate throughout … a moving exploration of faith and doubt.” * Kirkus Reviews *
“[
Fire Is Your Water] is both rich and rewarding. …This is not a novel about a specific time or place, so much as it’s a novel about the nature of love, what it means to have faith, and ultimately, what it means to be those flawed beings that we call human—creatures that, in the end, earn Cicero’s grudging respect. In the context of Minick’s novel, that is no small achievement.” * North American Review *
“From its first fiery pages to its concluding embers,
Fire is Your Water ignites a story that is both poignant and memorable.“ * Patheos *
“Minick uses an extraordinary mix of realism and enchantment to tell a love story wrapped in horror, fire, and faith. An utterly original novel.”
“A masterful novel filled with magic that runs alongside and soars above the daily lives of earnest, well-meaning people. I loved being immersed in this novel, and it has nestled happily in my imagination since I closed the covers. Absolutely gorgeous work.”
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Fire Is Your Water tests our assumptions about what the novel is supposed to be and how it achieves the effects that it does. The themes are big and brash, exploring the spaces between religion and faith, love and friendship, landscape and place, self and other. Minick teaches us that different fires burn even when they may remain unseen.”
“This magical yet real tale of an exceptional love triangle negotiates in vivid and original ways the themes Minick contemplates in all his work: the intersection of the spiritual and the corporal, the jagged edges of fear and love, and the arduous work of ethics and responsibility. An excellent first novel,
Fire is Your Water captures the beauty of transcending one’s deepest sorrow.”
