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Take a knee darling readers, as this is a bit of a lengthy lead in today.  I was first introduced to Dani Shapiro by Anne Bogel via one of her memoirs, Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage.  Shortly after reading this enthralling, concise work, Inheritance was published, which was a favorite of the year and earned Shaprio a season pass for me. (I was so uninterested in this based on the description, and now it lives rent free in my head.)  So, when Signal Fires was announced, it was an easy yes.  Getting it pulled up to the top of the TBR list was a different story, but when Roxanne Coady of RJ Julia was chatting with Bogel and called it “perfect fiction,” it quickly climbed the list.  

Coady describes this title perfectly, so I want to lead with her words:  

“You don’t need to work hard to get into it, you’re gripped immediately, you’re attached to all the characters. The story makes you think about how you live your life, what matters to you, what do you want to pay attention to?”

I also want to include some warnings for death, dementia, cancer, description of a challenging birth, deadly car accident, and substance abuse.  Yes, all of those tragic things are included in the novel, and yet, it’s so very hopeful.  

In addition to Coady’s description of what makes Signal Fires perfect fiction, I want to add interesting structure, compelling characters, and redemption arcs (yes, plural).  The story focuses on two families, living their best suburban lives, one starting in the 1980s and another in the 2010s.  The tale is about how the families function and grow, and how each member of the family deals with the unexpected and copes with tragedies.  Even in death and terminal illness, there is hope because of the way they’re handled on the page, and because of the changes brought about in those left behind.  The story is more about how those who remain are changed by the people they lose, and what they do as a result of it, and with each other.  Having now lost another in my community far, far too young, I keep thinking back to this hope Shapiro so gloriously discusses, and how these two amazing men gone too soon have shaped me and my people, and how we can live in ways that honor their memories.  That sort of hope in how we live after the loss, how we let the kindness and love of our loved ones influence our futures, sometimes in spite of the past, feels like what Signal Fires is really about.  

I’m giving Signal Fires five glittering stars for a gorgeously written, concise novel with an engaging story, dimensional characters, and a fun structure.  While tragic, truly devastating things happen in this novel, on and off the page, the ending holds so much hope for us all.

What is giving you hope recently?

~Nikki 

Signal Fires is the first Dani Shapiro work that I have read, but I’ve been hearing about her from my book buddy for quite a long while, starting when Nikki read Inheritance. Both of these works have won Shapiro a National Jewish Book Award, among other accolades. The author of nine other works of fiction and non-fiction, Shapiro’s works have been translated into fourteen languages and she is currently working on the TV adaptation of Signal Fires. In 2019 she created an original podcast on iHeartRadio entitled Family Secrets. Born in New York City, Shapiro and her family moved to Connecticut in the early 2000’s. Besides writing and podcasting, Shapiro occasionally teaches workshops and retreats, but notably is the co-founder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy.

I didn’t know what I was getting into when I started Signal Fires, but I struggled to put it down. It was an immersive experience into the life-changing, traumatizing events of several families. But, with every trauma experienced, there is a human connection between the survivors and growth for them in the future. It’s in the marketing copy, so I don’t feel spoilery discussing it, but the first tragedy is a horrific car crash into the oak tree at the corner of 18 Division St. It’s 1985 and at the time the Wilf family does not discuss the trauma – and as we Millennial children know, not discussing the trauma allows it to fester inside of us and we can’t heal from it. The hopeful theme is buoyed by each character’s growth and understanding of that very first trauma and how it negatively and positively affected their lives. I specifically appreciated how the car crash forces Sarah into a protective role of Theo, and she allows her ambition to propel her life which she describes as: “the degree from the right school, the string of jobs each more excellent than the last. No one would know that she is only, ever, a few steps away from the abyss.” Do we not all often times feel that same way, hovering over the rift in ourselves, in our family, in our understanding of our own place in the world? Phew, that was one of my favorite lines and yet it wrecked me. 

The very human story and connections made in Signal Fires could not have been made without the Wilf family’s home at 18 Division St in the sleepy town of Aurora. I love how the house and neighborhood became more than just a place, but also a character all its own. It changed and grew with the times and the families that surrounded it, especially the magic oak tree. I, like Nikki, am giving five enthusiastic stars, because of how Shapiro’s writing will live in my head rent free for a while, and make me move her backlist closer up to the top of the TBR.  (Which will disappoint my mother because she’s been trying to get me to read the author she’s currently obsessed with and it’s been a struggle to get those books added with all the new titles and scheduled re-reads…)

~Ashley

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