The Arsonist: A novel

by Sue Miller Narrated by Sue Miller

Overview

From the best-selling author of While I Was Gone and The Senator's Wife, a superb new novel about a family and a community tested when an arsonist begins setting fire to the homes of the summer people in a small New England town.

Troubled by the feeling that she belongs nowhere after working in East Africa for fifteen years, Frankie Rowley has come home-home to the small New Hampshire village of Pomeroy and the farmhouse where her family has always summered. On her first night back, a house up the road burns to the ground. Then another house burns, and another, always the houses of the summer people. In a town where people have never bothered to lock their doors, social fault lines are opened, and neighbors begin to regard one another with suspicion. Against this backdrop of menace and fear, Frankie begins a passionate, unexpected affair with the editor of the local paper, a romance that progresses with exquisite tenderness and heat toward its own remarkable risks and revelations.

Suspenseful, sophisticated, rich in psychological nuance and emotional insight, The Arsonist is vintage Sue Miller-a finely wrought novel about belonging and community, about how and where one ought to live, about what it means to lead a fulfilling life. One of our most elegant and engrossing novelists at her inimitable best.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

JUNE 2014 - AudioFile

Not only is Sue Miller one of our most deft and satisfying writers of literary fiction, she’s also on a par as a performer with some of the best narrators of audiobooks we have. Her voice is lovely, calm, and supple, and her tone matches the smooth style of the writing in a way that makes for a wonderfully integrated listening experience, completely free of distracting questions of whether the performer has understood what the author intended. The story, of a small New England town on edge because of a string of arsons, is more thoughtful than dramatic, and feels utterly real. Miller writes women particularly well, and it’s fascinating to know how Frankie Rowley’s inner life sounds to Miller herself. A beautiful performance. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2014 - AudioFile

Not only is Sue Miller one of our most deft and satisfying writers of literary fiction, she’s also on a par as a performer with some of the best narrators of audiobooks we have. Her voice is lovely, calm, and supple, and her tone matches the smooth style of the writing in a way that makes for a wonderfully integrated listening experience, completely free of distracting questions of whether the performer has understood what the author intended. The story, of a small New England town on edge because of a string of arsons, is more thoughtful than dramatic, and feels utterly real. Miller writes women particularly well, and it’s fascinating to know how Frankie Rowley’s inner life sounds to Miller herself. A beautiful performance. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171847289
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	06/24/2014
Edition description:	Unabridged

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