Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
Listening to the audio narrated by the author was an extra pleasure. Shapiro knows something about family secrets and SIGNAL FIRES, her first novel in over a decade provided a wonderful opportunity in which to disseminate her gathered wisdom on this topic. The novel is not told in chronological order, apt for a work with such constant imagery of stars and the night sky. It holds a magical sense of time in that one incident’s ripple effect exacerbates the notion that past, present and future are cosmically intertwined. The two neighboring families at the center of the story keep a modern day distance, yet are connected in myriad ways. The novel is a reminder of the ways in which everyone and everything are connected. I loved Shapiro’s ability to mix action and scene with takeaways or meaning-making, something true and beautiful I surmise comes from her deep life as a memoirist.
About Signal Fires:
Two families. One night. A constellation of lives changed forever.
An ancient majestic oak stands beneath the stars on Division Street. And under the tree sits Ben Wilf, a retired doctor, and ten-year-old Waldo Shenkman, a brilliant, lonely boy who is pointing out his favorite constellations. Waldo doesn’t realize it but he and Ben have met before. And they will again, and again. Across time and space, and shared destiny.Division Street is full of secrets. An impulsive lie begets a secret–one which will forever haunt the Wilf family. And the Shenkmans, who move into the neighborhood many years later, bring secrets of their own.. Spanning fifty kaleidoscopic years, on a street–and in a galaxy–where stars collapse and stories collide, these two families become bound in ways they never could have imagined.
Urgent and compassionate, Signal Fires is a magical story for our times, a literary tour de force by a masterful storyteller at the height of her powers. A luminous meditation on family, memory, and the healing power of interconnectedness.
Read more of Jeannie’s Reviews on her blog, on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or on the New York Journal of Books. For more TBR inspiration, check out Jeannie’s curated book lists at Bookshop.org.
