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Description

A 1908 wildfire swept through NE Michigan, consuming 900 homes and two million acres. With no fire watch towers, spotting aircraft, telephones, or organized firefighting, warnings were too few and too late. The conflagration killed 43 dead and left 4,600 homeless with winter looming. The story’s real-life protagonist, 10-year-old Henry Hardies, survived the fire but not without personal loss. Shiel faithfully recreates time and place, vividly bringing Henry’s ordeal to life. Contrasts the terror of nature’s destruction with a chronicle of family, love, sorrow, and recovery, yet leaves you buoyed by faith in the resilience of the human spirit and belief in love’s ability to germinate amid the ashes.

"I recommend this interesting novel...as a reminder of an important part of Michigan history, but also as a good story in its own right." --Andrew Grgurich, Marquette Mining Journal

"Leaps off the written page and into the hearts of readers." --Joyce Handzo, In The Library Reviews

"Written with the pace of a thriller . . . fascinating read, building a bonfire of dusty pages of history." --Robert Downes, Northern Express Weekly

"Shiel’s compassionate writing creates a community of bright, supportive, and determined people, whose characters develop and deepen as the fire grows." --Catherine Perkins, Historical Novel Society

$15, 6" x 9" Paperback, 254 pages, map and 5 historical photos, ISBN 978-0-9746553-1-4

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