Ashes of fiery weather/ Kathleen Donohoe

Firefighters walk boldly into battle against the most capricious of elements. Their daughters, mothers, sisters, and wives walk through the world with another kind of strength and another kind of sorrow, and no one knows that better than the women of the Keegan-O'Reilly clan. In Ashes of Fiery Weather, debut novelist Kathleen Donohoe takes us from famine-era Ireland to New York City a decade after 9/11, illuminating the passionate loves and tragic losses of six generations of women in a firefighting family.

When we meet Norah, she is a mother of three, contemplating her husband's casket as his men give him a full fireman's funeral, and faced with a trerible choice. Norah's mother-in-law, Delia, is stoic and self-preserving. Her early loses have made her keep her children close and her secretscloser. Eileen, Delia's daughter, adopted from Ireland and tough as nails, yet desperate for a sense of belonging, is one of the first women firefighters in New York. It is through her eyes that we experience the events of an otherwise picture-perfect fall day in 2001, and are blindsided along with her.

Here is a tour de force in the tradition of Let the Great World Spin. Exquisitely attuned to the language, humor, and history of her own firefighting family, Kathleen Donohoe presents protraits of seven unforgettable women-laying bare the many ways we search for each other, and the many ways we hope to be rescued.