Praise for A Fire Story

3 STARRED REVIEWS “Drawings, words, and a few photos combine to convey the depth of a tragedy that would leave most people dumbstruck.”
Kirkus Reviews - STARRED review

“Fies' personal, journalistic writing is more than matched by his massively appealing, bright, and pleasantly old-school comics style . . . Sometimes incorporating photographs and often communicating emotion with color, he affectingly relates the grief, rage, and powerlessness of losing one's home and possessions; each time he remembers another thing he's lost—home videos he'd been meaning to digitize, for instance—the pain feels brand-new again. Inviting, empathy-driven, and ultimately hopeful in the face of hardship.”
Booklist, Starred Review

“‘On Monday, my house disappeared,’ begins this quietly devastating graphic memoir . . . Despite the pain he and his wife endure sifting through the ashes, Fies goes light on sentimentality, instead focusing on the realities of surviving the crisis and rebuilding literally from the ground up . . . Without pleading or preaching, this affecting record guides readers through the experience of enormous loss, then out through the other side.”
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“…a full-length graphic novel that shifts between his own tragedy and the larger picture of how the blaze devastated his Santa Rosa community. Breakout stories spotlighting some of his neighbors deepen the book’s emotional tug.”
The Washington Post

About the Author

Brian Fies is the writer and cartoonist of the award-winning graphic novels Mom’s Cancer and Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? Although he lost his home, he and his wife have rebuilt and are living in Santa Rosa, California.

You May Also Like

View more