Publishers Weekly
★ 12/18/2023
Ruiz-Grossman’s captivating debut chronicles a wildfire’s impact on a diverse set of residents of Berkeley, Calif. Abigail, 50, organizes a fund-raiser at a friend’s house in the Berkeley Hills for a mixed-income apartment building on the city’s west side. She hires Willow, a young woman who ran away from home as a teen and who Abigail met while volunteering at a soup kitchen, to serve drinks and food at the party. Willow lives in a van with her boyfriend, Sunny, a fellow runaway, who picks up occasional construction work. The night of the gala, Willow warns Abigail that a series of fires are getting dangerously close to town. Abigail ignores her, even as an ominous glow creeps closer to the party, until she receives an evacuation notice on her phone. Meanwhile, Abigail’s teenage son, Xavier, is home nearby with his girlfriend, Mar. An intense parallel narrative develops involving Abigail’s delayed reaction, Willow and Sunny’s effort to escape the blaze, and the disaster’s impact on Xavier and Mar. It’s a gripping page-turner with a surprising twist, as a set of disgruntled survivors form an unlikely alliance and take drastic action. The complex characterizations and realistic scenarios converge to deliver a satisfying punch. Agent: Sharon Pelletier, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
"A complex dissection of the impacts of climate change, with an array of characters who feel true and affecting, A Fire So Wild tackles not only a terrifying natural disaster, but the scorching inequality of the aftermath, and demands that we don't look away." — Charlotte McConaghy, New York Times bestselling author of Once There Were Wolves
"A Fire So Wild delivers a powerful message about natural disasters and the unique challenges people face in the aftermath." — Novels Alive
"Slender and evocative, and devastatingly observant. The characters hung around my head for days after I finished it." — Chloe Angyal, author of Turning Pointe
"Sarah Ruiz-Grossman's debut novel is riveting from start to finish. Through her diverse array of characters, she captures the many realities that people across all backgrounds face in the wake of climate change destruction. Her passion for California and her knowledge of covering natural disasters shines in vivid and heartbreaking prose that doesn't shy away from the injustices of our society." — Saba Hamedy, culture editor at NBC News
"Sarah Ruiz-Grossman’s deep understanding of the overlapping climate and affordable housing crises shines through A Fire So Wild, a sharp and empathetic look at who gets to rebuild when disaster strikes. It is a cautionary but hopeful story about the limits of good intentions and incremental reform." — Jessica Schulberg, senior justice reporter at HuffPost
“Bracing . . . Ruiz-Grossman balances the social and political, the emotional and physical, with insight and precision. Her disparate characters all hail from different worlds, and it’s a horrific thrill to witness their dramas unfurl and collide. Through the juxtapositions they experience . . . Ruiz-Grossman highlights gross economic disparity and the falsity of upward mobility. . . . Before the fire bursts onto the scene, her descriptions of the natural world are bewitching. . . . Her prose is equally sharp and evocative when the fire finally does arrive.” — New York Times Book Review
“I loved this novel. Ruiz-Grossman spotlights the monstrosity of our climate crisis with digestible and tender prose. Atmospheric and gut-wrenching, this novel is a timely reminder for each of us of all we will lose if we turn the other way.” — Sahaj Kaur Kohli, author of But What Will People Say?
“Ruiz-Grossman’s captivating debut chronicles a wildfire’s impact on a diverse set of residents of Berkeley. . . . It’s a gripping page-turner with a surprising twist, as a set of disgruntled survivors form an unlikely alliance and take drastic action. The complex characterizations and realistic scenarios converge to deliver a satisfying punch." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Sarah Ruiz-Grossman presents a passionate yet critical observation of the devastating effects of a California wildfire that indiscriminately upends the lives of residents from various socioeconomic backgrounds. . . . Ruiz-Grossman's piercing commentary reveals the inequality and injustices of climate change for people just trying to live their lives. — Scientific American
"Ruiz-Grossman’s debut novel follows characters as their lives collide amidst devastation and heartbreak. . . . When a fast-moving wildfire tears through Berkeley during Abigail’s event, the diverse characters are directly in its path, and all are left struggling to forge ahead in the complex aftermath. . . . As the characters’ paths twine with fervor, Ruiz-Grossman's engaging tale offers a vivid exploration of modern-day disparities within the timeless and universal search for belonging and self-determination." — Booklist
"Earnest . . . hopeful." — San Francisco Chronicle
Kirkus Reviews
2024-02-03
Brief scenes, spanning the perspectives of diverse characters representing Berkeley’s socioeconomic strata, sound an alarm about the threats posed by climate change.
Having covered climate and social justice issues for HuffPost, first-time novelist Ruiz-Grossman is well equipped to depict the devastation wrought by the wildfires that recently threatened heavily settled areas of California. Here, a conflagration suddenly leaps into a bougie neighborhood in the Berkeley Hills. Directly in the line of fire is a soiree organized as a combo birthday party/fundraiser by Abigail, a committed if tone-deaf affordable housing advocate. She’s hoping to convince a developer to include low-income housing in a building nearing completion. In attendance are Abigail’s partner, Taylor, a one-time tech whiz who cashed out to become a stay-at-home mom, and their son, Xavier, now a high school senior. Recognizing that her role has become redundant, Taylor is edging into a what’s-it-all-about phase. As the marriage falters, Xavier falls for a classmate, Mar, a climate activist whose passion for ecology is matched by her ardor for social justice. Tossed into the mix is a mutually devoted homeless couple: Willow, a wan, dispirited 34-year-old survivor of childhood sexual trauma, and her dogged protector, Sunny, a sometime construction worker who wears a locket with her photo on a chain around his neck. The characters are introduced via brief glimpses framed within their individual points of view, but it’s a safe bet that—as in a formulaic disaster movie—their paths will eventually cross. Apart from one genuinely dramatic scene—caught unaware mid-tryst, the teens have no choice but to hurl themselves out a second-story window—the interactions unfurl ploddingly. The character sketches are thin, amounting to a collection of traits. The depiction of the mutually devoted van-dwelling couple, in particular, is sentimental to the point of insulting.
Though the novel is timely, even environmentalists may find its tone overly didactic.
