Synopsis "Who by Fire (in English)"
Who by Fire is told by Robert, Lena's husband, as he attempts to understand her affair with Isaac, an affair that he has become aware of after her death. He imagines the story of his wife and her lover.Robert the narrator is trying to know himself in the story he is writing as he tells his imagined version of his wife's betrayal. The story becomes a paradoxical tale of his own undoing that he comes to realize by telling it.Mary L. Tabor's Who by Fire is a lovely, innovative, deeply engaging novel about how it is that human beings make their way through the mysteries of existence. -Robert Olen Butler, winner of the Pulitzer PrizeMary Tabor's Who by Fire, is a lyric meditation on love and desire, one that will catch you up in the blaze of its eroticism, its tender evocation of love and the passions and accommodations of a life lived through the flesh and through the imagination. Can memory lead to forgiveness? Who by Fire explores that question in a story I won't soon forget. The beauty of the prose, the nuances of the characters, the ever-building plot-everything is in place for a novel that will touch you in all the right ways. -Lee Martin, author of Break the Skin and The Bright Forever, finalist for the PulitzerWho By Fire is a profound and lyrical novel, deeply felt and deeply moving. Intricately layered, this novel loops through time with the dare-devil courage and grace of a seasoned stunt pilot. In the narrator's unflinching journey of self-discovery, he comes to understand the past, both his failures and his saving graces. In the end, it is a hero's journey, both for the narrator and the reader. This is beautiful truth. -Marly Swick, author of Paper Wings and The Evening NewsMary Tabor's captivating story of love and death tackles the tangle of relationships within and outside the bonds of marriage. Her eye-popping knowledge of men's and women's behavior is effortlessly recounted as couples face their anguished choices. Set in a world of art, music, anthropology and science, her novel enlightens the mind while it stirs the emotions. She does all this in a confident style of prose that ranks her alongside the finest novelists working today. -Michael Johnson, foreign correspondent and writer for the International Herald Tribune, American Spectator and Washington Times
