Maureen Brady

Book Description
From Maureen Brady, previously nominated for an ALA Gay Book Award, comes Ginger's Fire, an absorbing tale of rebirth, redemption, and finally finding the way back home.

In quiet, understated prose, Ginger's Fire tells the story of one woman's painful but very necessary rebirth and awakening. Ginger and Nellie have finally realized their dream: after years of hard work, they have completely restored a beautiful old farmhouse in the Catskill Mountains. But as the house has come together, their relationship has been silently slipping away. When, after all their labors, their beloved home is destroyed in a catastrophic fire, Ginger and Nellie begin to move apart, and Ginger must begin an arduous journey to discover her own long-absent passion and inner fire. As Ginger delves into her past, discovering the river of alcoholism and dependency that runs through her life, she learns to value her own strength once more.

At times Ginger's road is a lonely one, but she finds comfort with Esther, a wise and appealing therapist, and Roxy, a sexpot gardener who pulls no punches when it comes to pleasure. With their help, Ginger begins to see the repeating patterns of her life, from her unhappy childhood to her repressed adulthood. Time ripples backward and then blends with the present as Ginger exorcises the demons brought to life by the fire and the breakup.

From the novel:
"Pulling up to the stop sign with the caution blinker, Ginger makes her right turn. The plume of smoke. It swipes across her heart this time as she rounds the top of the next hill. She hears the blast of the fire siren back toward Coxsackie. A long, shrill wail. It hangs on a high note. There’s a moment of silence, then the wail pierces into her heart again. Over and over calling out urgently.

"At the tee onto Willow Road the fire truck from Cairo is coming. She waits for it as well as three pick-ups with their flashers flashing. The whole world seems to be going to this fire. She follows the procession. Knowing the roads as well as they do, she is able to keep up with them. Thought is gone now. Replaced with the echo of the siren ringing in her gut. And the worry: why do they keep turning wherever she is supposed to turn? West Valley Road, then the right fork at Mulligans, then the left rolling into Berry Road, her road. It feels as if they have sucked her into their tail winds. She does not dare think the next thought: there are only four houses on Berry Road.

"The Smarts' house stands stately and quiet in the descending dusk. Hers is another mile down. She has to drop back a bit because the fire truck and other vehicles raise a tunnel of dust thick enough to block visibility of all but the plume of smoke ascending to the sky, now so close it cannot possibly be any other house but hers."
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