Fire Exit

(Hardback, Large Print Edition)

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From 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 lifefrom 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 canhis home and property; his alcoholic and bighearted friend Bobby; and his mother, Louise, who is slipping deeper into dementiahe 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

Reviews

"Remarkable. . . . An outstanding new voice with a lot to say."

NPR

"Striking."

The New Yorker

"Spellbinding. . . . a compassionate portrait of a man who is desperate to understand who he is and where he came from."

TIME, a Best Book of Summer

"Does not shy away from blistering questions of belonging and identity, but rather leans into them, in taut, often precise prose."

The New York Times Book Review, A Best Book of June

"Gripping. . . . A thoughtful, heartfelt exploration of what it means to be part of a family and a community."

Associated Press

"Talty is a beautiful craftsman."

The Washington Post

"A gripping tale of legacy and community, inheritance and shared values and what we owe one another."

People Magazine

"Heart-wrenching. . . . a powerful, moving tale that poses the fundamental question of belonging."

The Economist

"Talty introduces omens of tragedya gun, house fires & inherited mental illnessthat re-emerge in an explosive final act. But the real drama of this movingly considered novel is inside its main character."

The Wall Street Journal

"Masterful."

Chicago Review of Books, A Best Book of June

"Lacerating."

Chicago Tribune, A Best Book of Summer

Author Bio

Morgan Talty is a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation. His debut short story collection, Night of the Living Rez, won the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Sue Kaufman Prize, the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, the New England Book Award, the National Book Foundations 5 Under 35 Honor, and was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, and The Story Prize. His writing has appeared in The Georgia Review,Granta, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, Narrative, Lit Hub, and elsewhere. Talty is an assistant professor of English in Creative Writing and Native American and Contemporary Literature at the University of Maine, Orono, and he is on the faculty at the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing as well as the Institute of American Indian Arts. He lives in Levant, Maine.