How to Set Yourself on Fire

Fiction & Literature, Family Life, Contemporary Women, Literary
Cover of the book How to Set Yourself on Fire by Julia Dixon Evans, Dzanc Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Julia Dixon Evans ISBN: 9781945814679
Publisher: Dzanc Books Publication: May 8, 2018
Imprint: Dzanc Books Language: English
Author: Julia Dixon Evans
ISBN: 9781945814679
Publisher: Dzanc Books
Publication: May 8, 2018
Imprint: Dzanc Books
Language: English

"It’s not romantic," Torrey says. "It’s physics. For every letter there is an equal and opposite, you know…letter."

Sheila’s life is built of little thievings. Adrift in her mid-thirties, she sleeps in fragments, ditches her temp jobs, eavesdrops on her neighbor’s Skype calls, and keeps a stolen letter in her nightstand, penned by a UPS driver she barely knows. Her mother is stifling and her father is a bad memory. Her only friends are her mysterious, slovenly neighbor Vinnie and his daughter Torrey, a quirky twelve-year-old coping with a recent tragedy.
When her grandmother Rosamond dies, Sheila inherits a box of secret love letters from Harold C. Carr—a man who is not her grandfather. In spite of herself, Sheila gets caught up in the legacy of the affair, piecing together her grandmother’s past and forging bonds with Torrey and Vinnie as intense and fragile as the crumbling pages in Rosamond’s shoebox.
As they get closer to unraveling the truth, Sheila grows almost as obsessed with the letters as the man who wrote them. Somewhere, there’s an answering stack of letters—written in Rosamond’s hand—and Sheila can’t stop until she uncovers the rest of the story. Threaded with wry humor and the ache of love lost or left behind, How to Set Yourself on Fire establishes Julia Dixon Evans as a rising talent in the vein of Shirley Jackson and Lindsay Hunter.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

"It’s not romantic," Torrey says. "It’s physics. For every letter there is an equal and opposite, you know…letter."

Sheila’s life is built of little thievings. Adrift in her mid-thirties, she sleeps in fragments, ditches her temp jobs, eavesdrops on her neighbor’s Skype calls, and keeps a stolen letter in her nightstand, penned by a UPS driver she barely knows. Her mother is stifling and her father is a bad memory. Her only friends are her mysterious, slovenly neighbor Vinnie and his daughter Torrey, a quirky twelve-year-old coping with a recent tragedy.
When her grandmother Rosamond dies, Sheila inherits a box of secret love letters from Harold C. Carr—a man who is not her grandfather. In spite of herself, Sheila gets caught up in the legacy of the affair, piecing together her grandmother’s past and forging bonds with Torrey and Vinnie as intense and fragile as the crumbling pages in Rosamond’s shoebox.
As they get closer to unraveling the truth, Sheila grows almost as obsessed with the letters as the man who wrote them. Somewhere, there’s an answering stack of letters—written in Rosamond’s hand—and Sheila can’t stop until she uncovers the rest of the story. Threaded with wry humor and the ache of love lost or left behind, How to Set Yourself on Fire establishes Julia Dixon Evans as a rising talent in the vein of Shirley Jackson and Lindsay Hunter.

More books from Dzanc Books

Cover of the book Women Drinking Benedictine by Julia Dixon Evans
Cover of the book This Book Is Not for You by Julia Dixon Evans
Cover of the book Teacha! by Julia Dixon Evans
Cover of the book Every Hunter Wants to Know by Julia Dixon Evans
Cover of the book Velocity by Julia Dixon Evans
Cover of the book Hunters and Gamblers by Julia Dixon Evans
Cover of the book Cleaned the Crocodile's Teeth by Julia Dixon Evans
Cover of the book Desire Provoked by Julia Dixon Evans
Cover of the book Ryan Seacrest is Famous by Julia Dixon Evans
Cover of the book Inconceivable Wilson by Julia Dixon Evans
Cover of the book The Fish and the Not Fish by Julia Dixon Evans
Cover of the book All the Beautiful Sinners by Julia Dixon Evans
Cover of the book Barbarossa by Julia Dixon Evans
Cover of the book Origins of the Universe and What It All Means: A Memoir by Julia Dixon Evans
Cover of the book Cutting Lisa by Julia Dixon Evans
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy