Wildfire: A Novel

by Mary Pauline Lowry

Overview

Julie has an obsession with fire that began after her parents died when she was twelve years old. Her pyromania leads her to take an unlikely job as a forest firefighter on an elite, Type 1 “Hotshot” crew of forest firefighters who travel the American West battling wildfires.

The only woman on the twenty-person crew, Julie struggles both to prove her worth and to find a place of belonging in the dangerous, insular, and very masculine world of fire. Julie’s not only battling fires but also her deepest secrets she’s been harboring since she became orphaned. As her season “on the line” progresses, so do her relationships with the strange and varied cast of characters that make up her hotshots team—Archie, Tan, Rock Star, Hawg, Lance, and Sam. And ultimately, Julie learns what it truly means to put your life on the line for someone else.

Wildfire is a tough, gritty, and fascinating story from an exciting new voice in American fiction.

Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632201959
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	04/05/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Mary Pauline Lowry has worked as a forest firefighter on the Pike Hotshot Crew, as a construction worker, and as an advocate in the movement to end violence against women. A native of Austin, she has an MA in English from the University of Texas. She has written essays for The New York Times Magazine, xoJane, and the Huffington Post.

Editorial Reviews

“I love this book. With stunning language and deep insight, Lowry has written a novel that makes you feel, with nearly every sentence, that something big is at stake. It's been a damn long time since a novel knocked me around and made me care this way. The Hotshots’ world is exotic and specialized and the entry she offers is stunning and rare. But it is the heart of this book you will most want to know. Here is an original and special voice.” —Anthony Swofford, New York Times bestselling author of Jarhead

"Wildfire is ultimately about belonging and redemption, teamwork and trust, but it's also a love story, an adventure story, a portrait of testosterone, and a novel only a former hotshot could write." —Carmel

"Lowry’s tale of fighting fast-moving fires in dry forests is compelling, rich in detail and action." —Dallas Morning News

"Metaphoric, educational, and fun as hell to read." —Austin Chronicle

“This is a fine book, which gives vivid access into the extraordinary, almost cultish, world of wildland firefighters.” —Joy Williams, author of The Quick and the Dead

"Young writers aren't supposed to understand as much as the prescient Mary Lowry. In Wildfire, she illuminates the cycle of life with a racing, insightful story, while the forested Rocky Mountains jump to flame around her characters. Firefighters are mostly male, and Lowry uses their camaraderie and preconceived notions as a velvety rope with which to hang their outdated thinking. But this is really just a story about standing up to great forest fires and taking risks and you'll feel the sweet heat of that adventure, too." —James C. Moore, New York Times bestselling author of Bush’s Brain

“Forget werewolves, vampires, and fantasy. Here's a true-life adventure lived by a woman who gave up the security of her college life in Texas and entered the wild and woolly world of the Hotshot firefighter. As a struggling rookie on the Pike Inter-Agency Hotshot Crew, Julie encounters forces that challenge the very essence of who she thinks she is. Out of the ashes of one long, hot summer comes a story of fighting wildfire from Colorado to Idaho to Southern California, all of it told by a woman, from the inside the experience, as she lived it herself. A tribute to the hard work and courage of Hotshots everywhere.” —Murry A. Taylor, author of Jumping Fire: A Smokejumper's Memoir of Fighting Wildfire

“Mary Pauline Lowry’s incendiary Wildfire illustrates that women can both fight fire—and write fiction about the American West—on par with men. Bold, funny, iconoclastic, and devastating. A fantastic read!” —Sarah Bird, author of The Gap Year and The Flamenco Academy

“Wildfire will not leave you unscathed. This brave and big-hearted novel about a young woman working on a foul-mouthed all-male forest-fire crew in the Rockies takes the reader into a world none of us have seen and makes it indelibly real and totally gripping. I know nothing quite like it.” —James Magnuson, author of Famous Writers I Have Known

“Mary Lowry’s Wildfire is absolutely riveting. A vivid, evocative, and emotionally complex journey through a dangerous and beautiful world.” —Lou Berney, Pushcart Prize–winning author of Gutshot Straight and The Road to Bobby Joe and Other Stories

“Wildfire is the funniest, saddest, most harrowing, most exuberant novel I've read in years. Mary Lowry writes with an insider’s precision about the raucous camaraderie and dangerous work of wildland firefighting, but also with an artist's insight into a lonely young woman's determination to test herself, to belong to something, and to forge a life that matters.” —Stephen Harrigan, New York Times bestselling author of The Gates of the Alamo

“A riveting tale of adventure, courage and a young woman's search for meaning. Not to mention a fascinating guide to the techniques and culture of fighting wildfires. Brilliant!” —HW Brands, New York Times bestselling author of The First American and Traitor to His Class

“I love this book. With stunning language and deep insight, Lowry has written a novel that makes you feel, with nearly every sentence, that something big is at stake. It's been a damn long time since a novel knocked me around and made me care this way. The Hotshots’ world is exotic and specialized and the entry she offers is stunning and rare. But it is the heart of this book you will most want to know. Here is an original and special voice.” —Anthony Swofford, New York Times bestselling author of Jarhead

"Wildfire is ultimately about belonging and redemption, teamwork and trust, but it's also a love story, an adventure story, a portrait of testosterone, and a novel only a former hotshot could write." —Carmel

"Lowry’s tale of fighting fast-moving fires in dry forests is compelling, rich in detail and action." —Dallas Morning News

"Metaphoric, educational, and fun as hell to read." —Austin Chronicle

“This is a fine book, which gives vivid access into the extraordinary, almost cultish, world of wildland firefighters.” —Joy Williams, author of The Quick and the Dead

"Young writers aren't supposed to understand as much as the prescient Mary Lowry. In Wildfire, she illuminates the cycle of life with a racing, insightful story, while the forested Rocky Mountains jump to flame around her characters. Firefighters are mostly male, and Lowry uses their camaraderie and preconceived notions as a velvety rope with which to hang their outdated thinking. But this is really just a story about standing up to great forest fires and taking risks and you'll feel the sweet heat of that adventure, too." —James C. Moore, New York Times bestselling author of Bush’s Brain

“Forget werewolves, vampires, and fantasy. Here's a true-life adventure lived by a woman who gave up the security of her college life in Texas and entered the wild and woolly world of the Hotshot firefighter. As a struggling rookie on the Pike Inter-Agency Hotshot Crew, Julie encounters forces that challenge the very essence of who she thinks she is. Out of the ashes of one long, hot summer comes a story of fighting wildfire from Colorado to Idaho to Southern California, all of it told by a woman, from the inside the experience, as she lived it herself. A tribute to the hard work and courage of Hotshots everywhere.” —Murry A. Taylor, author of Jumping Fire: A Smokejumper's Memoir of Fighting Wildfire

“Mary Pauline Lowry’s incendiary Wildfire illustrates that women can both fight fire—and write fiction about the American West—on par with men. Bold, funny, iconoclastic, and devastating. A fantastic read!” —Sarah Bird, author of The Gap Year and The Flamenco Academy

“Wildfire will not leave you unscathed. This brave and big-hearted novel about a young woman working on a foul-mouthed all-male forest-fire crew in the Rockies takes the reader into a world none of us have seen and makes it indelibly real and totally gripping. I know nothing quite like it.” —James Magnuson, author of Famous Writers I Have Known

“Mary Lowry’s Wildfire is absolutely riveting. A vivid, evocative, and emotionally complex journey through a dangerous and beautiful world.” —Lou Berney, Pushcart Prize–winning author of Gutshot Straight and The Road to Bobby Joe and Other Stories

“Wildfire is the funniest, saddest, most harrowing, most exuberant novel I've read in years. Mary Lowry writes with an insider’s precision about the raucous camaraderie and dangerous work of wildland firefighting, but also with an artist's insight into a lonely young woman's determination to test herself, to belong to something, and to forge a life that matters.” —Stephen Harrigan, New York Times bestselling author of The Gates of the Alamo

“A riveting tale of adventure, courage and a young woman's search for meaning. Not to mention a fascinating guide to the techniques and culture of fighting wildfires. Brilliant!” —HW Brands, New York Times bestselling author of The First American and Traitor to His Class

From the Publisher

2014-08-24
After failing out of college in her final semester, Julie joins a forest firefighting crew in this fast-paced novel. Lowry (The Earthquake Machine, 2011) paints a vivid portrait of life as a hotshot, a firefighter specially trained in wildfire suppression. The Pike Inter-Agency Hotshot Crew must react quickly when a burning tree falls in the wrong direction or a walkie-talkie runs out of batteries. In such scenes of true-to-life suspense and well-rendered detail, it's easy to forget this is a novel and not a work of nonfiction. Indeed, the writing is strongest where it reveals the extreme physical endurance of and deep camaraderie that forms in a hotshot crew. Julie's personal story, by comparison, is far less convincing. In the prologue, Julie explains her obsession with fire: "After my parents died I started to set things on fire." When she's forced to quit her pyromania, Julie starts binging and purging as a coping mechanism. After joining the Pike crew, Julie is still sneaking out after dinners to throw up. Despite the depth of her psychological struggles, her compulsions fade away without ever being discovered, confronted or treated directly. Julie's social situation feels similarly thin. As the only woman on the crew, she fights predictable sexism to gain acceptance from her team. One particularly closed-minded hotshot, Tan, only warms toward Julie after she saves his life. Julie's story is rife with melodrama and overused tropes: She falls for a crew member, reconciles with her controlling grandmother and beats the boys at their own game multiple times. The seams show around the obvious plot devices. When Bliss appears in their camp, Julie feels threatened by the presence of another woman; after the two become friends, Bliss has served her purpose and is never heard from again. Characters are fairly flat, and when the story reaches its tragic ending, the reader knows it's coming and remains unmoved. Lowry's novel portrays the rich life and culture of a hotshot crew but struggles to make that world's inhabitants equally real.

Kirkus Reviews