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  • Things We Set on Fire

  • By: Deborah Reed
  • Narrated by: Tanya Eby
  • Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars (2 ratings)

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Things We Set on Fire

By: Deborah Reed
Narrated by: Tanya Eby
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Summary

From the bestselling author of Carry Yourself Back to Me comes another tightly plotted, emotionally complex audiobook about strangers who happen to be part of the same family.

A series of tragedies brings Vivvie's young grandchildren into her custody, and her two estranged daughters back under one roof. Jackson, Vivvie's husband, was shot and killed 30 years ago, and the ramifications have splintered the family into their own isolated remembrances and recriminations.

This deeply personal, hauntingly melancholy look at the damages families inflict on each other - and the healing that only they can provide - is filled with flinty, flawed, and complex people stumbling towards some kind of peace.

Like Elizabeth Strout and Kazuo Isiguro, Deborah Reed understands a story, and her characters reveal themselves in the subtleties: the space between the thoughts, the sigh behind the smile, and the unreliable lies people tell themselves that ultimately reveal the deepest truths.

"Reed is fearless in nudging her characters toward disaster, and the listener follows with a thumping heart, confident in the story's authoritative prose and, ultimately, redeeming spirit. I was genuinely moved by this audiobook, and recommend it highly." (Antonya Nelson, author of Bound: A Novel and Some Fun: Stories and a Novella).

©2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.; 2013 Deborah Reed
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What listeners say about Things We Set on Fire

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Kept me enthralled

I liked this book rather than loved it. It was an enjoyable read and there was enough story to keep me reading. However the story lacked consistency and jumped from one person to another without explanation. This was made more complicated as it was hard to distinguish between characters in the naration. I managed to follow it but it left me flipping back many times to understand. Maybe better as a read and not Audible.

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