A World Made of Fire

By Mark Childress
$2.99 Rating: Not yet rated.
Published: March 01, 2011
Words: 77,967 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781452452913

Short description

"Mark Childress is a writer of almost uncanny stylistic ability and clear vision ... makes you want to holler 'oh yeah!' like a guy who's gotten religion at a riverside camp meeting." -- Stephen King The first novel by the author of "Crazy in Alabama," "One Mississippi," and "Georgia Bottoms," "A World Made of Fire" is a Southern gothic tale rich in language, description, and spooky mysteries...

Extended description

Original Jacket Copy, Knopf edition

An extraordinary burst of praise (see the back of the jacket) celebrates the publication of Mark Childress's enthralling first novel. "A World Made of Fire" is set in Alabama at the turn of the century and tells the story of the large-hearted Callie Bates and her adoring children; Callie, who married a Bates like herself but from the far end of the same proud line (a great-aunt arranged it -- he was fifty, a preacher and alone, and Callie had her own young shame to put right). It is the story of the preacher-husband leaving in a buggy after the wedding and returning twice a year with money and spiteful sermons about the children Callie gives birth to year after year in his absence. It is the story of the secret visitor who is the radiant element of Callie's life; of the tragic Christmas Day of 1901; and of the children who survive it -- Jacko, believed to have magical powers because he was saved from the fire in his mother's arms, and young Stella.. (Read more) Original Jacket Copy, Knopf edition

An extraordinary burst of praise (see the back of the jacket) celebrates the publication of Mark Childress's enthralling first novel. "A World Made of Fire" is set in Alabama at the turn of the century and tells the story of the large-hearted Callie Bates and her adoring children; Callie, who married a Bates like herself but from the far end of the same proud line (a great-aunt arranged it -- he was fifty, a preacher and alone, and Callie had her own young shame to put right). It is the story of the preacher-husband leaving in a buggy after the wedding and returning twice a year with money and spiteful sermons about the children Callie gives birth to year after year in his absence. It is the story of the secret visitor who is the radiant element of Callie's life; of the tragic Christmas Day of 1901; and of the children who survive it -- Jacko, believed to have magical powers because he was saved from the fire in his mother's arms, and young Stella, blighted by the sorrow she has witness and outlived, struggling to open out once again to the comforts and risks of love. And it is the story of the canny old woman who enters Stella's life with tales of powers unseen.

"A World Made of Fire" is a novel of place, of emotional subtlety and suspense, of mysteries resolved, and of life affirmed. It marks the debut of an immensely gifted novelist.
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Tags

voodoo, alabama, southern fiction, southern gothic, polio, mark childress, southern literatrure, early 20th century america, epidemics

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