The Fire Starters

Jan Carson

Apr 2019 · Random House

About this ebook

**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.

Ratings and reviews

If you dislike surrealism you might not enjoy this book. However the surrealism sits so appropriately beside and behind the terrible realism of Belfast like the chapters in the book. Her blindingly original metaphors, her unforced similes, her imagery, her sheer understanding of the minds of a people who believe they are under a siege only slightly bigger than their perception brought a shiver to my spine so many times in the reading.

About the author

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 Seán Ó Faoláin 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.