Tuesday October 15, 2019 at 7:00 PM. HOW FIRES END Book Launch at Ferrara Bakery & Cafe, 195 Grand Street, New York, NY 10013. Marco Rafalà will be in conversation with Idra Novey, author of Those Who Knew. The moderator will be poet & editor Hafizah Geter. This event is free and open to the public. It includes free pastries, food, refreshments, & live music by Solo Di Gondolieri.

Set in post-World War II Sicily and mid-eighties America, HOW FIRES END chronicles the long legacy of a single act of violence, illustrating along the way the complicated dynamics of familial bonds, the devastating effects of war upon childhoods, and the inextricable nature of personal and political identities.

In a sweeping narrative that contains multiple perspectives and grand themes—revenge, love, forgiveness—the novel not only offers a striking portrait of a single family, but also interrogates traditional and troubling definitions of masculinity and the powerful allure of fascism. HOW FIRES END is a story of Sicilian Americans, but it is not a mafia tale. It is a story of World War II, but it is not an account of military conflict. It is, instead, a heartfelt examination of the complex relationship between immigrant parents and their first-generation children.

ADVANCE PRAISE

"HOW FIRES END is a raised fist of a novel, one filled with men’s brutal tenderness and tender brutality. It is both a subtle and powerful indictment of the silences between generations and a poignant testament to the bond between sons and fathers of all kinds. A blazing debut by an important new Italian-American voice."
—Christopher Castellani, author of Leading Men

"Beautiful, mesmerizing, consoling, and under immaculate control, HOW FIRES END is a powerful novel about the religion we create for ourselves as we face that which perhaps even God has not imagined for humanity."
—Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh, The Queen of the Night, and How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

"HOW FIRES END struck me at my core. Part mourning, part witness, this is a story that yearns to make peace with the endless, brutal wounds of war. It will haunt me with an unanswerable question: how do we heal from the pain of the unspoken when a family’s secrets are carried—across seas and generations—out of love and protection?”
—Natalia Sylvester, author of Everyone Knows You Go Home and Chasing the Sun

BIO

Marco Rafalà is a first-generation Sicilian American novelist, musician, and writer for award-winning tabletop role-playing games. He earned his MFA in Fiction from The New School and is a cocurator of the Guerrilla Lit Reading Series in New York City. Born in Middletown, Connecticut, he now lives in Brooklyn, New York. How Fires End is his debut novel.