The Fire Starters

(Paperback)

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From a prize-winning rising star in Irish fiction comes this brilliant, dark, propulsive literary novel about fierce familial love and sacrifice. **WINNER of the EU Prize for Literature** 'One of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation' SUNDAY TIMES 'Gripping, affecting, surprising. I inhaled it' LISA MCINERNEY 'Captivating, intelligent and courageous' IRISH TIMES 'Spectacular. At once grittily real, wildly magical and insanely alluring - a siren-song of a novel.' DONAL RYAN 'Jan Carson seems to have invented a new Belfast in this gripping, surprising, exhilarating novel.' RODDY DOYLE 'Blew me away with its power, anger and wit.' JOSEPH O'CONNOR Dr Jonathan Murray fears his new-born daughter is not as harmless as she seems. Sammy Agnew is wrestling with his dark past, and fears the violence in his blood lurks in his son, too. The city is in flames and the authorities are losing control. As matters fall into frenzy, and as the lines between fantasy and truth, right and wrong, begin to blur, who will these two fathers choose to protect Dark, propulsive and thrillingly original, this tale of fierce familial love and sacrifice fizzes with magic and wonder.

Reviews

Gripping, affecting, surprising. I inhaled it. -- Lisa McInerney
Spectacular . . . Dark, beautiful, at once grittily real and wildly magical. Insanely alluring. -- Donal Ryan
Blew me away with its power, anger and wit. * Joseph O'Connor, Books of the Year *
A big and rambunctious novel that casts a cold satirical eye on themes such as language, culture, identity, sectarianism, and the terrifying proximity of the past * Sunday Times, 50 Greatest Irish Novels of the 21st Century *
Shimmering with wit, simmering with an incandescent rage, shot through with a seam of wild magic, The Fire Starters is a powerful, disturbing portrait of East Belfast and its people and its hope for the future. I wont be the only reader to proclaim that, in the best way possible, Jan Carson is on fire. * Lucy Caldwell *

Author Bio

Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in Belfast. Her first novel, Malcolm Orange Disappears, was published in 2014 to critical acclaim, followed by a short story collection, Children's Children (2016), and a flash fiction anthology, Postcard Stories (2017). Her work has appeared in numerous journals and on BBC Radio 3 and 4. In 2016 she won the Harper's Bazaar short story competition and was shortlisted for the Sean Faolain Short Story Prize. She specializes in running arts projects and events with older people, especially those living with dementia. The Fire Starters is her second novel.